Department of Mental Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 624N Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Department of Mental Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 624N Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Int J Drug Policy. 2022 Feb;100:103517. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103517. Epub 2021 Oct 29.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on mental health and alcohol use in the US, however there is little research on its impacts on cannabis use. Considering the role of cannabis as a coping strategy or self-medicating behavior, there is a need to understand how individuals who use cannabis have adapted their use amid the pandemic. Therefore, this study examined changes in self-reported cannabis use among US adults in the context of COVID-19 pandemic by (1) describing trends of use during the first 8 months of the pandemic among adults who used cannabis in this period; and (2) characterizing trends of use within sociodemographic subgroups and by state cannabis policy status.
The sample consisted of 1,761 US adults who used cannabis at least once during the 8-month study period from the nationally representative Understanding America Study. Linear mixed-effect models were used to model changes in the number of days of past-week cannabis use across 16 waves from March 10, 2020, to November 11, 2020.
Compared to early March, the number of days cannabis was used per week was significantly higher at the start of April (β=0.11, 95% CI=0.03, 0.18) and May (β=0.21,95% CI=0.05, 0.36). In subsequent months (June - November), the number of days of cannabis use attenuated to levels comparable to March. Trends of cannabis use across the study period generally did not differ across sociodemographic characteristics and state cannabis policy status.
Though increases in use were marginal among many groups, the evolving pandemic and the growing concern for the mental health of segments of the U.S. population warrant close monitoring of coping behaviors, including substance use.
新冠疫情对美国的心理健康和酒精使用产生了影响，但关于其对大麻使用影响的研究甚少。考虑到大麻作为应对策略或自我治疗行为的作用，有必要了解在疫情期间使用大麻的人是如何调整其使用方式的。因此，本研究通过以下两个方面考察了美国成年人在新冠疫情背景下自我报告的大麻使用变化情况：（1）描述在此期间使用大麻的成年人在疫情前 8 个月内的使用趋势；（2）描述社会人口统计学亚组和州大麻政策状况内的使用趋势。
本研究样本由来自全国代表性的“理解美国研究”（Understanding America Study）的 1761 名至少在 8 个月研究期间内使用过大麻的美国成年人组成。线性混合效应模型被用于分析从 2020 年 3 月 10 日至 11 月 11 日的 16 个波次中每周过去一周大麻使用天数的变化。
与 3 月初相比，4 月初（β=0.11，95%CI=0.03，0.18）和 5 月初（β=0.21，95%CI=0.05，0.36）大麻使用量每周增加了 11 天，这是显著增加。在随后的几个月（6 月至 11 月），大麻使用天数的增加趋势减弱到与 3 月相当的水平。在整个研究期间，大麻使用的趋势在社会人口统计学特征和州大麻政策状况方面基本没有差异。
尽管许多群体的使用增加幅度较小，但不断演变的疫情以及对美国部分人群心理健康的日益关注，需要密切监测包括药物使用在内的应对行为。
