• Kevin H Yang, Rowena M Tam, Nora Satybaldiyeva, Wayne Kepner, Benjamin H Han, Alison A Moore, and Joseph J Palamar.
• University of California San Diego School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, 9500 Gilman Drive, San Diego, CA 92093, USA. Electronic address: kevinyang@health.ucsd.edu.
• Prev Med. 2023 Dec 1; 177: 107768107768.

IntroductionWhile there is increasing interest in the use of cannabis to manage a range of health-related symptoms, little is known about trends in recent cannabis use with respect to various health conditions.MethodsWe examined data from a US representative sample of noninstitutionalized adults age ≥ 18 from the 2015-2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (N = 214,505). We estimated the pooled prevalences followed by linear time trends, overall, and by disability (i.e., difficulty hearing, seeing, thinking, walking, dressing, doing errands) and lifetime (i.e., bronchitis, cancer, diabetes, hepatitis, kidney disease) and current (i.e., asthma, depression, heart disease, hypertension) health condition status using logistic regression. Models with year-by-condition status interaction terms were used to assess differential time trends, adjusting for demographic characteristics.ResultsFrom 2015 to 2019, cannabis use increased significantly among adults with and without each disability and health condition examined. However, the increase was more rapid among those with (versus without) difficulty hearing (89.8% increase [4.9% to 9.3%] vs. 37.9% increase [8.7% to 12.0%], p = 0.015), difficulty walking (84.1% increase [6.3% to 11.6%] vs. 36.8% increase [8.7% to 11.9%], p < 0.001), 2-3 impairments (75.3% increase [9.3% to 16.3%] vs. 36.6% increase [8.2% to 11.2%], p = 0.041), and kidney disease (135.3% increase [3.4% to 8.0%] vs. 38.4% increase [8.6% to 11.9%], p = 0.045).ConclusionGiven the potential adverse effects of cannabis, prevention and harm reduction efforts should focus on groups at increasingly higher risk for use, including those with disabilities and kidney disease.Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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