Time-trends in hospitalizations with cannabis use disorder: A 17-year U.S. national study

Abstract

Objective: To assess whether cannabis use disorder (abuse or dependence) hospitalizations are increasing over time and examine the variables associated with the outcomes of cannabis use disorder hospitalizations. Methods: This study examined the rates of hospitalizations with cannabis use disorder and associated healthcare utilization using the U.S. National Inpatient Sample data from 1998 to 2014. Adjusted logistic regression analyses assessed the association of demographic, comorbidity and hospital characteristics with healthcare utilization (total hospital charges, length of hospital stays, discharge to a non-home setting) during the index hospitalization for cannabis use disorder. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Results: There were an estimated 5,601,382 hospitalizations with cannabis use disorder (primary or secondary diagnosis). The rates of hospitalization (/100,000 admissions) for cannabis use disorder increased 3.7-fold from 439/100,000 admissions in 1998–2000 to 1,631/100,000 admissions in 2013–2014. In the adjusted analysis, the following factors were associated with worse healthcare utilization outcomes for cannabis use disorder hospitalizations: older age; Deyo–Charlson index score of 2 or higher; male sex; insurance payer other than private; higher income; hospital region; an urban hospital; and a medium to large hospital bed size. Conclusions: Rising hospitalization rate with cannabis use disorder from 1998 to 2014 is concerning. Our study identified independent variables associated with a higher risk of poor utilization outcomes of cannabis use disorder hospitalizations. Healthcare policies should focus on reducing the burden of cannabis use disorder hospitalizations. High-risk groups of people with cannabis use disorder with the worst outcomes should be targeted to reduce associated utilization.

Keywords:

• Cannabis
• mortality
• time-trends
• hospitalization
• healthcare utilization

Ethics/IRB approval and consent to participate

The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Institutional Review Board approved this study, and all investigations were conducted in conformity with ethical principles of research (X1201207004). The IRB waived the need for informed consent for this database study that has de-identified data.

Acknowledgments

I thank John D. Cleveland, MS of the University of Alabama at Birmingham for performing data analyses based on the study protocol.

Disclosure statement

There are no financial conflicts related directly to this study. JAS has received consultant fees from Crealta/Horizon, Medisys, Fidia, UBM LLC, Trio Health, Medscape, WebMD, Adept Field Solutions, Clinical Care options, Clearview healthcare partners, Putnam associates, Focus forward, Navigant consulting, Spherix, Practice Point communications, the National Institutes of Health and the American College of Rheumatology. JAS owns stock options in Vaxart pharmaceuticals. JAS previously owned stock options in Amarin, Viking and Moderna pharmaceuticals. JAS is on the speaker’s bureau of Simply Speaking. JAS is a member of the executive of OMERACT, an organization that develops outcome measures in rheumatology and receives arms-length funding from 12 companies. JAS serves on the FDA Arthritis Advisory Committee. JAS is the chair of the Veterans Affairs Rheumatology Field Advisory Committee. JAS is the editor and the Director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group Satellite Center on Network Meta-analysis. JAS previously served as a member of the following committees: member, the American College of Rheumatology's (ACR) Annual Meeting Planning Committee (AMPC) and Quality of Care Committees, the Chair of the ACR Meet-the-Professor, Workshop and Study Group Subcommittee and the co-chair of the ACR Criteria and Response Criteria subcommittee.

There are no non-financial competing interests for author.

Authors’ contributions

Jasvinder A. Singh designed the study, developed study protocol, reviewed analyses and wrote the first draft of the paper. All authors approved the final manuscript.

Data availability statement

These data are easily available from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ’s) “Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP)” and can be obtained after completing an on-line Data Use Agreement training session and signing a Data Use Agreement. The contact information for requesting the data is as follows: HCUP Central Distributor Phone: [phone] (toll-free); Fax: [phone] E-mail: [email protected]

Additional information

Funding

This material is the result of work supported by research funds from the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the resources and use of facilities at the Birmingham VA Medical Center, Birmingham, Alabama, USA. The funding body did not play any role in design, in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.