Cannabis Use Requiring Acute Care Increases Dementia Risk
People aged 45 years or older with an acute care encounter due to cannabis use had a 3.9-fold higher risk of a new dementia diagnosis within 5 years compared with the general population, according to study results published in JAMA Neurology.
“Individuals with cannabis use severe enough to require emergency department or hospital care may be at increased risk of being diagnosed with dementia,” wrote lead author Daniel T. Myran, MD, MPH, of the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and study coauthors.
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The population-based matched cohort study analyzed health administrative data for 6.1 million people aged 45 years and older in Ontario, Canada, between 2008 and 2021 (with follow-up through 2022). At entry, participants had no history of dementia. Researchers compared new dementia diagnoses among patients with an acute care encounter (emergency department visit or hospitalization) for cannabis use, patients with an all-cause acute care encounter for reasons other than cannabis use, patients with an acute care encounter for alcohol use, and the general population.
According to the study, incident acute care for cannabis use increased the 5-year risk of a dementia diagnosis 3.9-fold compared with age- and sex-matched individuals from the general population and 1.5-fold compared with age- and sex-matched patients with an all-cause acute care encounter. Absolute rates of a dementia diagnosis within 5 years were 5.0% for patients with cannabis-related acute care, 3.6% for patients with all-cause acute care, and 1.3% for the general population.
After researchers adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics and chronic health conditions, hazard ratios for a dementia diagnosis in patients with an acute care cannabis-related visit were 1.72 compared with the general population and 1.23 compared with patients with all-cause acute care visit. However, dementia risk was lower when compared with acute care for alcohol use: researchers reported an adjusted hazard ratio of 0.69 for a dementia diagnosis for patients with an acute care visit for cannabis use compared with alcohol use.
The study also found that between 2008 and 2021, annual rates of incident acute care for cannabis use increased 5.0-fold among patients aged 45 to 64 years and 26.7-fold among patients aged 65 years or older.
“These findings have important implications considering increasing cannabis use among older adults,” researchers wrote.
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