According to a new study performed by researchers in China, people who consumed a moderate amount of coffee every day, in addition to the many health benefits they stand to gain, had a lower risk of death over a seven-year period than those who did not.

The study, which was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was collected from data in the UK BioBank, which collected information from more than 500,000 people since it was established in 2006, including people's coffee-drinking habits. The data of more than 171,000 people was used in this study.

The greatest reduction in the risk of death, at 29%, was seen for those that drank between 2.5 and 4.5 cups a day of unsweetened coffee, or for those drinking between 1.5 and 3.5 cups a day of sweetened coffee. This was less clear for people who used artificial sweeteners.

However, the study relied on self-reporting, and questioned participants about their coffee drinking and other habits only once, which prompted experts such as Naveed Sattar, a professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, to caution that the results were not clear cut, and "far from definitive."

“This is because coffee drinkers are in general more affluent and have healthier lives than non-drinkers and I remain unconvinced whether these factors can be overcome in observational studies.” Prof Sattar added that genetic evidence did not link coffee to any important health benefits.