Analysis, Health and Fitness

Study: Frequent Marijuana Consumers Are Not More Likely To Access Health Care Services


Study: Frequent Marijuana Consumers Are Not More Likely To Access Health Care ServicesMilwaukee, WI–(ENEWSPF)–August 11, 2016.  Marijuana consumers do not access health care services at rates that are higher than non-users, according to data published online ahead of print in the European Journal of Internal Medicine.

Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin assessed the relationship between marijuana use and health care utilization in a nationally representative sample of 174,159,864 US adults aged 18 to 59 years old.

Authors reported “no significant increase in outpatient health care visits and overnight hospital admissions in marijuana users compared to non-users.” They also reported that those who consumed cannabis multiple times per day were no more likely to seek health care patient services as compared to those who used it less frequently.

They concluded, “[C]ontrary to popular belief, … marijuana use is not associated with increased healthcare utilization, [and] there [is] also no association between health care utilization and frequency of marijuana use.”

A previous assessment, published in 2014 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, similarly reported that the past use of marijuana (within the last three months) was not associated with adverse effects on health or comorbidity, frequency of ER visits or hospitalization.

Full text of the study, “Marijuana users do not have increased healthcare utilization: A National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) study,” appears in the European Journal of Internal Medicine.

Source: http://www.norml.org

 

 


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