Coffee and Happiness: A Study on Health and Depression

The proposal came from Harvard Medical School & Harvard School of Public Health, completing the commitment dedicated by the Fondazione Ernesto Illy to the theme of individual and collective happiness and well-being.

The Harvard epidemiological research group starts from the numerous evidences of the benefits of coffee on health to focus on the negative correlation between coffee consumption and depression.

Hence the exploration, on a sample of 237,000 women followed over the course of 41 years (Nurses’ Health Studies I and II) of the role of coffee in general well-being, measuring a series of psychophysical variables that have to do with the definition more wide and deep with happiness.

The study takes into examination a series of genetic data on the sample, which will allow an analysis of the genetic variables in the metabolism of coffee.