Attitudes Toward the Use of Medical Cannabis and the Perceived Efficacy, Side-effects and Risks: A Survey of Patients, Nurses and Physicians

ABSTRACT

Gaps between physician and patient perceptions may lead to misunderstandings and mismanage of treatment. There are sparse data about the differences in opinions toward medical cannabis (MC) between patients and health professionals. The aim of this study was to examine the attitudes toward MC, its perceived efficacy, side effects and risk of dependency, among patients, nurses and physicians. A cross-sectional study of samples of 430 patients, 65 nurses and 65 physicians in two large medical centers in Israel. Questionnaires were administered on attitudes, perceived efficacy, side-effects and perceived risks of dependency. Compared with nurses and physicians, patients who were using MC had the most positive attitudes toward MC (p < .001). Younger age, high school education, being Jewish and ever using MC, were associated with more positive attitudes toward MC among patients (p < .001). Among nurses and physicians, having an oncology specialty predicted more positive attitudes toward MC. Physicians had a less positive attitude toward MC compared to nurses (p < .01). Our study provides evidence that physicians are less positive in their views toward MC compared to nurses and patients. More information and awareness to MC may reduce the gap in perceptions between physicians and patients.

KEYWORDS:

• Medical cannabis
• health expectations
• health services
• physician-patient communication
• patients’ experience

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the participants, research and hospital staff who participated and assisted in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Professional education refers to nonacademic, specialized trainings and courses such as: engineering, information and technology, administration, bookkeeping etc.

2. Note that these are not the true proportions of MC-users in the population. Since the focus of the study was the experience of patients who are using MC, there was an intentional selection of current or past MC-users with a sub-sample of none-users.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Israel National Institute for Health Policy Research [Grant no. [2016/195/ר/