Marijuana use may impact mortality in adults hospitalized with COPD exacerbation

A new study found that marijuana users who were hospitalized for a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation had lower odds of in-hospital mortality compared with nonusers.

“Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is the fourth leading cause of mortality in the United States,” Kulothungan Gunasekaran, MD, from the division of pulmonary critical care medicine at Yale-New Haven Health Bridgeport Hospital, said during a presentation of the research poster at the virtual CHEST Annual Meeting. “Due to the ongoing legalization of marijuana, its acceptance, availability and use in the inpatient population is on the rise.”

The retrospective analysis included 6,073,862 patients with COPD who were hospitalized for an exacerbation to assess mortality outcomes associated with and without marijuana use. Patients were identified from the National Inpatient Sample database from 2005 to 2014.

Overall, 24,546 hospitalized patients (0.4%) reported marijuana use. Sixty percent of those who reported marijuana use were aged 50 to 64 years and 55% were white.

Mean length of stay was lower in patients hospitalized with COPD who reported marijuana use compared with those who did not use marijuana (3.69 days vs. 4.55 days; P < .0001), according to Gunasekaran.

Those who reported marijuana use had lower odds of in-hospital mortality (OR = 0.624; 95% CI, 0.407-0.958; P = .0309) and pneumonia (OR = 0.882; 95% CI, 0.806-0.964; P = .0059), according to the results.

Researchers also reported lower odds of sepsis (OR = 0.749; 95% CI, 0.523-1.071; P = .1127) and acute respiratory failure (OR = 0.995; 95% CI, 0.877-1.13; P = .9411).

“The association between marijuana use and these favorable outcomes deserves further study to understand the interaction between marijuana use and COPD, as this can have a significant health impact,” Gunasekaran said.

A limitation of this study, according to the researchers, is the potential underestimation of the prevalence of marijuana use.

Reference:

Gunasekaran K, et al. CHEST. 2020;doi:10.1016/j.chest.2020.08.1520.