Trends in Prevalence and Outcomes of Cannabis Use Among Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Hospitalizations: A Nationwide Population-Based Study 2005-2014

Authors

Kulothungan Gunasekaran, Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine, Yale-New Haven Health Bridgeport Hospital, Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA.Follow
Dinesh C. Voruganti, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA.
Mandeep Singh Rahi, Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine, Yale-New Haven Health Bridgeport Hospital, Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA.Follow
Kalaimani Elango, Division of Cardiology, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Sathishkumar Ramalingam, Division of Hospital Medicine, Lovelace Medical Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
Adiba Geeti, Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine, Yale-New Haven Health Bridgeport Hospital, Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA.Follow
Jeff Kwon, Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine, Yale-New Haven Health Bridgeport Hospital, Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA.

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Cannabis and cannabinoid research

Abstract

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the fourth leading cause of mortality in the United States. Due to the ongoing legalization of cannabis, its acceptance, availability, and use in the in-patient population are on the rise. In this retrospective study, we investigated the association of cannabis use with important outcomes in COPD hospitalizations. The National Inpatient Sample (NIS) data were analyzed from 2005 to 2014. The primary outcome of interest was the trends and outcomes of cannabis use among COPD hospitalizations, including in-hospital mortality, pneumonia, sepsis, and respiratory failure. We identified 6,073,862 hospitalizations, 18 years of age or older, with COPD using hospital discharge codes. Of these, 6,049,316 (99.6%) were without cannabis use, and 24,546 (0.4%) were admitted with cannabis use. The majority of COPD hospitalizations with cannabis use were aged 50-64 (60%). Cannabis use was associated with lower odds of in-hospital mortality (odds ratio [OR] 0.624 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.407-0.958]; p=0.0309) and pneumonia (OR 0.882 [95% CI 0.806-0.964]; p=0.0059) among COPD hospitalizations. Cannabis use also had lower odds of sepsis (OR 0.749 [95% CI 0.523-1.071]; p=0.1127) and acute respiratory failure (OR 0.995 [95% CI 0.877-1.13]; p=0.9411), but it was not statistically significant. Among hospitalized patients with a diagnosis of COPD, cannabis users had statistically significant lower odds of in-hospital mortality and pneumonia compared to noncannabis users. The association between cannabis use and these favorable outcomes deserves further study to understand the interaction between cannabis use and COPD.

First Page

340

Last Page

348

DOI

10.1089/can.2020.0133

Publication Date

8-1-2021

Recommended Citation

Gunasekaran, Kulothungan; Voruganti, Dinesh C.; Singh Rahi, Mandeep; Elango, Kalaimani; Ramalingam, Sathishkumar; Geeti, Adiba; and Kwon, Jeff, "Trends in Prevalence and Outcomes of Cannabis Use Among Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Hospitalizations: A Nationwide Population-Based Study 2005-2014" (2021). Critical Care. 3.
https://scholar.bridgeporthospital.org/critical_care/3

Identifier

33998884 (pubmed); PMC8380787 (pmc); 10.1089/can.2020.0133 (doi)