Current cannabis users may have an increased likelihood of experiencing severe COVID-19 complications such as hospitalization and intensive care unit admission, according to research published in JAMA Network Open.1 The authors said that the findings warrant further examination into the associations of cannabis use and COVID-19 outcomes.
Although the COVID-19 emergency in the United States was officially ended in May 2023, the disease still poses a threat to public health. According to data from the CDC, in the week ending June 15, hospitalizations due to COVID-19 were up 14.7% compared to the previous week.2 This is why it’s still critical to study modifiable risk factors—such as substance use—and associations with COVID-19 outcomes.
Key Takeaways
- Current cannabis users may have an increased likelihood of experiencing severe COVID-19 complications, such as hospitalization and intensive care unit admission. This suggests that cannabis use is not harmless in the context of COVID-19.
- The study analyzed data from 72,501 patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Among these, cannabis use was associated with a significantly increased risk of hospitalization and intensive care unit admission, although it was not linked to higher all-cause mortality.
- The findings highlight the need for more research on the health effects of cannabis, particularly in the context of COVID-19.
“There’s this sense among the public that cannabis is safe to use, that it’s not as bad for your health as smoking or drinking, that it may even be good for you,” Li-Shiun Chen, MD, DSc, senior author on the study, said in a release.3 “I think that’s because there hasn’t been as much research on the health effects of cannabis as compared to tobacco or alcohol. What we found is that cannabis use is not harmless in the context of COVID-19.”
READ MORE: Trust Between Patient, Provider Key to Reducing Vaccine Hesitancy
A team of investigators from the Washington University School of Medicine and the University of Wisconsin conducted a study to examine if cannabis and tobacco use are associated with adverse health outcomes from COVID-19 in the context of other known risk factors. Data for the retrospective cohort study was gathered from electronic health records from patients diagnosed with COVID-19 between February 2020 and January 2022 in a large academic medical center in the Midwest.
The study cohort included 72501 patients, of which 59.7% were female with a mean age of 48.9 years. Of those, 9710 were current tobacco smokers, 17654 were former tobacco smokers, and 7060 reported they currently used cannabis. The primary study outcomes were hospitalization, admission to an intensive care unit, and all-cause mortality. Secondary study outcomes included overall survival.
During the study period, there were 51006 hospitalizations, 4725 intensive care unit visits, and 2717 deaths reported among the participants. Investigators found that, compared to never smoking, both current and former smoking were associated with an increased risk of hospitalization, intensive care unit admission, and all-cause mortality following a COVID-19 a diagnosis. While cannabis use was also associated with a significantly increased risk of hospitalization and intensive care unit admission, it was not associated with a higher likelihood of all-cause mortality.
Study limitations include that new variants may have emerged during the study period, that substance use data relied on self-reporting, that there were insufficient data on the types of tobacco products used by participants, and that additional factors such as mental health status were not included.
“People were asked a yes-or-no question: ‘Have you used cannabis in the past year,’” Nicholas Griffith, MD, first author on the study, said in a release.3 “That gave us enough information to establish that if you use cannabis, your health-care journey will be different, but we can’t know how much cannabis you have to use, or whether it makes a difference whether you smoke it or eat edibles. Those are questions we’d really like the answers to. I hope this study opens the door to more research on the health effects of cannabis.”
READ MORE: COVID-19 Resource Center
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References
1. Griffith NB, Baker TB, Heiden BT, et al. Cannabis, Tobacco Use, and COVID-19 Outcomes. JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(6):e2417977. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.17977
2. COVID Data Tracker. Report. CDC. June 24, 2024. Accessed June 25, 2024. Griffith NB, Baker TB, Heiden BT, et al. Cannabis, Tobacco Use, and COVID-19 Outcomes. JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(6):e2417977. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.17977
