Cannabis use in older adults is up, according to researchers who used a national survey database to study emergent patterns in older adult use of the substance.
Their results were published online in JAMA Internal Medicine.
After noting an upward trend in seniors using cannabis — from 1.0% in 2005 to 4.2% in 2018 — a group of investigators led by Benjamin H. Han, MD, from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the 2021-2023 cohorts from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
Their sample included 15,689 adults aged 65 years or older. More than half of the sample (54%) were women. Han and colleagues found that when compared with prior years, past-month cannabis use increased significantly across the cohorts, from 4.8% (95% CI, 3.9%-5.9%) in 2021 to 7.0%…