Attonito Jennifer, Freeman Katherine, Bone Melanie K, Howard Heather, Blum Carly, Luck George
Healthcare Administration, Florida Atlantic University Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Boca Raton, USA.
Biostatistics Collaborative Core, Florida Atlantic University Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Boca Raton, USA.
Cureus. 2024 Aug 4;16(8):e66115. doi: 10.7759/cureus.66115. eCollection 2024 Aug.
Medical cannabis (MC) has been found effective in treating multiple symptoms commonly experienced by older adults; however, residents in long-term care (LTC) often lack access to MC products. This study seeks to identify patterns and barriers to recommending MC to patients and to explore the knowledge and attitudes toward MC use among patients and providers.
The quantitative portion of this study employed a survey to assess the knowledge of, attitudes toward, and barriers to MC among 126 providers in Florida LTC. Frequencies were reported, bivariate associations were analyzed, and a final regression model predicting MC knowledge was tested. In-depth interviews were conducted with 25 LTC patients, and content was analyzed using the RADaR method.
The age of the providers ranged from 21 to 74; 74% were female, 18% were Black/African American, and 17% reported Hispanic ethnicity. Less than half (37.2%) felt they received adequate training on MC. Having accurate knowledge about MC was associated with greater confidence in answering patients' questions (p=0.002). Although most providers (94.2%) felt MC is a viable treatment option, the main barriers to recommending it to patients were a lack of proper training or clinical guidelines. Regarding patients, 16% reported ever using MC, and less than half (32%) had knowledge of MC or how to obtain products. Many believed it could help with symptoms and would consider its use if recommended by a doctor. However, they reported that MC was rarely recommended by providers and that they knew little about the use of this therapy.
This study underscores access challenges among seniors in LTC who might benefit most from MC's therapeutic properties. Complex MC policy implementation issues are discussed. State and federal policy issues around cannabis contribute to limited research on the therapeutic uses of cannabis, as well as the MC access problem addressed in this study.
医用大麻已被证明对治疗老年人常见的多种症状有效；然而，长期护理机构（LTC）的居民往往无法获得医用大麻产品。本研究旨在确定向患者推荐医用大麻的模式和障碍，并探讨患者和提供者对使用医用大麻的知识和态度。
本研究的定量部分采用一项调查，以评估佛罗里达州长期护理机构中126名提供者对医用大麻的知识、态度和障碍。报告了频率，分析了双变量关联，并测试了预测医用大麻知识的最终回归模型。对25名长期护理患者进行了深入访谈，并使用RADaR方法分析了内容。
提供者的年龄在21岁至74岁之间；74%为女性，18%为黑人/非裔美国人，17%报告为西班牙裔。不到一半（37.2%）的人认为他们接受了关于医用大麻的充分培训。对医用大麻有准确的了解与更有信心回答患者的问题相关（p=0.002）。尽管大多数提供者（94.2%）认为医用大麻是一种可行的治疗选择，但向患者推荐它的主要障碍是缺乏适当的培训或临床指南。关于患者，16%的人报告曾使用过医用大麻，不到一半（32%）的人了解医用大麻或如何获得产品。许多人认为它可以帮助缓解症状，如果医生推荐，他们会考虑使用。然而，他们报告说，提供者很少推荐医用大麻，而且他们对这种疗法的使用知之甚少。
本研究强调了长期护理机构中可能从医用大麻的治疗特性中获益最多的老年人在获取方面面临的挑战。讨论了复杂的医用大麻政策实施问题。围绕大麻的州和联邦政策问题导致对大麻治疗用途的研究有限，以及本研究中解决的医用大麻获取问题。
