Well, that’s the conclusion the authors want you to draw. IMHO, that’s a higher burden of proof than a correlation study like this can offer. As in, if I didn

Well, that’s the conclusion the authors want you to draw. IMHO, that’s a higher burden of proof than a correlation study like this can offer. As in, if I didn’t already drink coffee, and I was worried about stroke, I don’t think this study would be enough to confidently prescribe coffee as a stroke-prevention tool. But if I do drink coffee and I am worried about stroke, this study makes me a little less worried, because the answer to “well did coffee-drinkers disproportionately get stroke?” is “no.” The fact that it goes the other way just makes it a stronger “no”. Reasonable people could differ in interpreting this.