Coffee drinkers may have more reasons to enjoy another cup, as a large new study suggests that people who drink up to five cups of regular or decaffeinated coffee daily may be slightly less likely to die early from any cause or certain chronic conditions.

Men and women in the study who drank moderate amounts of coffee — one to five 8-ounce cups a day — were found to have a lower risk of dying over a 30-year period from heart disease, type 2 diabetes, neurological diseases and suicide compared with the people in the study who didn’t drink coffee, according to the findings, published today (Nov. 16) in the journal Circulation.

The research showed that people in the study who drank coffee moderately lived slightly longer, and had a reduced risk of death from some chronic diseases, compared with the people who didn’t drink coffee, said Dr. Frank B. Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a co-author of the study. Other research has established links between coffee drinking and a reduced risk of early mortality, but this new study was one of the largest to show these associations, he said.