Assessing Health-Related Outcomes of Medical Cannabis Use among Older Persons: Findings from Colorado and Illinois

ABSTRACT

Objectives

To assess health-related outcomes associated with medical cannabis use among older patients in Colorado and Illinois enrolled in their home state’s medical cannabis program.

Methods

Cross-sectional data from anonymous surveys were collected from 139 persons over the age of 60 using medical cannabis in the past year. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to confirm the hypothesized four-factor structure that includes health-related quality of life (HRQL), health-care utilization (HCU), symptom effects, and adverse events. We then examined associations between cannabis use and self-reported outcome changes using linear regression.

Results

The four-factor model was the best fitting structure (X2(df) = 81.63 (67), p> X2 = 0.108) relative to reduced structures. We also found that using cannabis 1–4 times per week is associated with 3.30 additional points on the HRQL scale (p < .001), 2.72 additional points on the HCU scale (p < .01), and 1.13 points on pain (p < .001). The frequency of use reported at 5–7 times per week is associated with 4.71 additional HRQL score points (p < .001). No significant associations were observed between the frequency of use and adverse events.

Conclusions

We observed how cannabis use outcomes fall into four independent factors, and those using more frequently reported higher values on HRQL, HCU, and pain measures. However, we are cautious about the generalizability of our findings.

Clinical Implications

Clinicians should consider how older patients using medical cannabis can experience positive and negative outcomes simultaneously or separately and assess these outcomes directly along with considering patient self-reports.

KEYWORDS:

• Medical cannabis
• older persons
• self-reported outcomes
• proximal/distal
• structural equation models (SEM)

Clinical implications

• Clinicians should recognize how older adults who use cannabis for a medical purpose experience a range of outcomes both positive and negative.

• Given how these outcomes are statistically independent, clinicians should consider how older adults using cannabis can experience positive and negative outcomes simultaneously or separately.

• While cannabis use appears to improve a range of self-reported outcomes, patients may under-report negative effects and clinicians must be careful to include direct assessment of potential risks and harms for older adults using cannabis for a medical purpose.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded in part by the Retirement Research Fund (RRF) and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). Neither RRF nor CDPHE had any role in the design, completion, or analysis, and neither was involved in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.