Older adults’ marijuana use, injuries, and emergency department visits

Figures & data

Table 1. Sample sociodemographic, physical and mental health, and emergency department (ED) visit characteristics by past-year marijuana use status.

	Nonusers^1 96.13% (n = 14,020)	Users^2 3.87% (n = 695)	p
Age (yrs; M,SE)^3	63.8 (0.13)	57.6 (0.33)	<.001
Age group (%)			<.001
50–64 yrs	58.56	86.24
65+ yrs	41.44	13.76
Male (%)	45.89	67.59	<.001
Race/ethnicity (%)			<.001
Non-Hispanic White	75.13	73.24
Non-Hispanic Black	9.81	15.60
Hispanic	9.13	6.31
Non-Hispanic Asian	4.63	0.79
American Indian	1.31	4.06
Marital status (%)			<.001
Married/cohabiting	64.20	43.19
Widowed	12.91	6.28
Divorced/separated	16.70	37.75
Never married	6.19	12.78
College degree (%)	29.75	20.78	<.001
Medicaid coverage (%)	8.03	15.85	<.001
No. of chronic medical conditions^4 (M, SE)	2.04 (0.04)	1.95 (0.20)	.669
Self-rated health (1 = poor, 5 = excellent; M, SE)	3.32 (0.02)	3.04 (0.06)	<.001
Major depressive disorder (%)	8.09	17.33	<.001
Anxiety disorder^5 (%)	11.91	22.98	<.001
Post-traumatic stress disorder (%)	3.20	9.44	<.001
Bipolar, manic, or hypomanic disorder (%)	1.15	3.82	<.001
Any of the above past-year mental disorders (%)	18.86	33.23	<.001
Alcohol use disorder (%)	5.41	29.26	<.001
Nicotine use disorder (%)	14.34	47.47	<.001
Marijuana use disorder (%)	n/a	17.54
Other drug use disorder (%)	0.88	8.40	<.001
Past-year any injury^6 (%)	18.94	28.84	<.001
No. of injuries among the injured^7 (M, SE)	1.53 (0.03)	1.97 (0.25)	.088
Past-year ED visit (%)	23.50	30.86	<.001
ED visit only	11.47	16.48	<.001
Both ED visit and hospitalization	12.03	14.38	.169
No. of ED visits among visitors^8 (M, SE)	1.70 (0.03)	1.83 (0.14)	.380

¹ Never used marijuana (74.42%) or used it prior to the past 12 months only (21.71%).

² Used marijuana in the past 12 months.

³ M = Mean; SE = Standard error.

⁴ Includes arthritis, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, liver disease, and lung disease.

⁵ Includes specific phobia, social phobia, panic disorder, agoraphobia, and generalized anxiety disorder.

⁶ Any injury in past 12 months that caused the sample person to seek medical help or cut down usual activities for more than half a day.

⁷ n = 2,731 for the paired comparison of nonusers vs. users.

⁸ n = 3,653 for the paired comparison of nonusers vs. users.

Table 2. Marijuana use patterns of past-year marijuana users.

Measures for marijuana use pattern
Age first used (yrs; M,SE)^1	19.0 (0.39)
Age when began using the most (yrs; M, SE)^1	19.0 (0.39)
No. of joints usually smoked in a day when using the most (M, SE)^1	3.19 (0.20)
Duration (weeks) used the most (M, SE)^1	691.83 (30.98)
Frequency of use in past 12 months (%)
Every day/nearly every day	26.12
1–4 times a week to 1–3 times a month	39.96
1–11 times past year	33.92
No. of joints usually smoked in a day in past 12 months (M, SE)^1	1.67 (0.09)
Past-year medical marijuana user (%)	12.74

Due to missing data, sample sizes varied between 691 and 676

for the examined variables.

¹ M = Mean; SE = Standard error.

Table 3. Effects of marijuana use on emergency department (ED) visits through injury: Model parameters from mediation model using structural equation modeling.

Model parameter	OR (95% CI)^1	z	p
ED visit
Injury	6.12 (5.46–6.86)	31.12	<.001
Marijuana use	1.16 (0.90–1.50)	1.15	.249
Age	1.01 (1.00–1.02)	3.50	<.001
Male	0.95 (0.85–1.05)	−1.03	.302
Non-Hispanic black	1.61 (1.42–1.83)	7.37	<.001
Hispanic	1.08 (0.92–1.27)	0.96	.338
Non-Hispanic Asian	1.02 (0.80–1.29)	0.14	.889
American Indian	1.05 (0.70–1.59)	0.25	.802
Medicaid	1.59 (1.36–1.86)	5.80	<.001
No. of chronic medical conditions	1.50 (1.44–1.57)	18.75	<.001
Alcohol use disorder	1.19 (0.95–1.47)	1.54	.124
Nicotine use disorder	1.05 (0.92–1.19)	0.74	.459
Other drug use disorder	1.41 (0.92–2.17)	1.56	.119
Any mental disorder	1.22 (1.07–1.39)	3.07	.002
Injury
Marijuana use	1.48 (1.18–1.85)	3.45	.001
Age	0.99 (0.99–1.00)	−2.94	.003
Male	0.99 (0.90–1.10)	−0.11	.911
Non-Hispanic black	0.77 (0.67–0.89)	−3.62	<.001
Hispanic	0.83 (0.71–0.97)	−2.32	.020
Non-Hispanic Asian	0.60 (0.46–0.80)	−3.55	<.001
American Indian	1.31 (0.91–1.90)	1.44	.151
Medicaid	1.00 (0.85–1.18)	0.02	.984
No. of chronic medical conditions	1.20 (1.15–1.25)	8.60	<.001
Alcohol use disorder	1.15 (0.94–1.39)	1.36	.176
Nicotine use disorder	1.01 (0.89–1.15)	0.22	.825
Other drug use disorder	1.48 (1.03–2.11)	2.14	.033
Any mental disorder	1.43 (1.26–1.61)	5.68	<.001

Reference group for non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, non-Hispanic Asian, and American Indian

was non-Hispanic White.

¹ OR = Odds ratios; CI = Confidence intervals.

Table 4. Logistic regression results: Association of marijuana use patterns with injuries and emergency department (ED) visits among past-year marijuana users.

	Injury vs. no injury OR (95% CI)^1	ED visit vs. no ED visit OR (95% CI)^1
Age	0.98 (0.94–1.02)	0.96 (0.92–0.99)*
Male	1.12 (0.73–1.71)	0.87 (0.56–1.37)
Race/ethnicity
(Non-Hispanic White)
Non-Hispanic Black	0.70 (0.42–1.18)	1.86 (1.14–3.05)
Hispanic	1.13 (0.56–2.26)	0.97 (0.43–2.19)
American Indian	0.81 (0.29–2.25)	0.33 (0.10–1.05)
Medicaid	1.21 (0.67–2.17)	1.29 (0.77–2.16)
No. of chronic medical conditions	1.27 (1.07–1.50)**	1.52 (1.23–1.87)***
Alcohol use disorder	1.60 (0.95–2.68)	0.90 (0.52–1.57)
Nicotine use disorder	1.11 (0.64–1.94)	1.08 (0.66–1.76)
Other drug use disorder	1.12 (0.53–2.36)	1.78 (0.82–3.87)
Any mental disorder	1.59 (0.93–2.73)	1.51 (0.95–2.41)
Age at first marijuana use	1.01 (0.97–1.04)	1.02 (0.99–1.06)
Frequency of marijuana use in past 12 months
(1 to 11 times past year)
Every day/nearly every day	0.69 (0.41–1.17)	0.89 (0.48–1.64)
1–4 times a week to 1–3 times a month	1.10 (0.70–1.72)	0.79 (0.45–1.40)
No. of joints usually smoked in a day in past 12 months	1.02 (0.89–1.16)	0.98 (0.86–1.12)
	N = 668; Model F (15,97) = 2.22,design df = 111, p = .010	N = 668; Model F (15,97) = 3.08,design df = 111, p < .001

¹ OR = Odds ratios; CI = Confidence intervals.

***p < .001; **p < .01; *p < .05.

Jehle CC Jr, Nazir N, Bhavsar D. The rapidly increasing trend of cannabis use in burn injury. J Burn Care Res 2015;36:e12–7. doi: 10.1097/BCR.0000000000000192

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