Because the lethal illness that got here to be often called COVID-19 began spreading in late 2019, scientists rushed to reply a vital query: Who’s most in danger?
They shortly acknowledged {that a} handful of traits — together with age, smoking historical past, excessive physique mass index (BMI) and the presence of different ailments reminiscent of diabetes — made folks contaminated with the virus more likely to turn out to be severely in poor health and even die. However one prompt threat issue stays unconfirmed greater than 4 years later: hashish use. Proof has emerged over time indicating each protecting and dangerous results.
Now, a brand new examine by researchers at Washington College Faculty of Medication in St. Louis factors decisively to the latter: Hashish is linked to an elevated threat of great sickness for these with COVID-19.
The examine, revealed June 21 in JAMA Community Open, analyzed the well being information of 72,501 folks seen for COVID-19 at well being facilities in a serious Midwestern health-care system in the course of the first two years of the pandemic. The researchers discovered that individuals who reported utilizing any type of hashish a minimum of as soon as within the yr earlier than creating COVID-19 had been considerably extra prone to want hospitalization and intensive care than had been folks with no such historical past. This elevated threat of extreme sickness was on par with that from smoking.
“There’s this sense among the many public that hashish is protected to make use of, that it isn’t as dangerous in your well being as smoking or consuming, that it could even be good for you,” mentioned senior writer Li-Shiun Chen, MD, DSc, a professor of psychiatry. “I believe that is as a result of there hasn’t been as a lot analysis on the well being results of hashish as in comparison with tobacco or alcohol. What we discovered is that hashish use is just not innocent within the context of COVID-19. Individuals who reported sure to present hashish use, at any frequency, had been extra prone to require hospitalization and intensive care than those that didn’t use hashish.”
Hashish use was completely different than tobacco smoking in a single key consequence measure: survival. Whereas people who smoke had been considerably extra prone to die of COVID-19 than nonsmokers — a discovering that matches with quite a few different research — the identical was not true of hashish customers, the examine confirmed.
“The impartial impact of hashish is much like the impartial impact of tobacco concerning the danger of hospitalization and intensive care,” Chen mentioned. “For the danger of loss of life, tobacco threat is evident however extra proof is required for hashish.”
The examine analyzed deidentified digital well being information of people that had been seen for COVID-19 at BJC HealthCare hospitals and clinics in Missouri and Illinois between Feb. 1, 2020, and Jan. 31, 2022. The information contained knowledge on demographic traits reminiscent of intercourse, age and race; different medical circumstances reminiscent of diabetes and coronary heart illness; use of drugs together with tobacco, alcohol, hashish and vaping; and outcomes of the sickness — particularly, hospitalization, intensive-care unit (ICU) admittance and survival.
COVID-19 sufferers who reported that they’d used hashish within the earlier yr had been 80% extra prone to be hospitalized and 27% extra prone to be admitted to the ICU than sufferers who had not used hashish, after taking into consideration tobacco smoking, vaccination, different well being circumstances, date of prognosis, and demographic elements. For comparability, tobacco people who smoke with COVID-19 had been 72% extra prone to be hospitalized and 22% extra prone to require intensive care than had been nonsmokers, after adjusting for different elements.
These outcomes contradict another analysis suggesting that hashish could assist the physique combat off viral ailments reminiscent of COVID-19.
“Many of the proof suggesting that hashish is nice for you comes from research in cells or animals,” Chen mentioned. “The benefit of our examine is that it’s in folks and makes use of real-world health-care knowledge collected throughout a number of websites over an prolonged time interval. All of the outcomes had been verified: hospitalization, ICU keep, loss of life. Utilizing this knowledge set, we had been in a position to verify the well-established results of smoking, which means that the information are dependable.”
The examine was not designed to reply the query of why hashish use would possibly make COVID-19 worse. One risk is that inhaling marijuana smoke injures delicate lung tissue and makes it extra susceptible to an infection, in a lot the identical manner that tobacco smoke causes lung harm that places folks liable to pneumonia, the researchers mentioned. That is not to say that taking edibles can be safer than smoking joints. It’s also potential that hashish, which is understood to suppress the immune system, undermines the physique’s potential to combat off viral infections irrespective of how it’s consumed, the researchers famous.
“We simply do not know whether or not edibles are safer,” mentioned first writer Nicholas Griffith, MD, a medical resident at Washington College. Griffith was a medical pupil at Washington College when he led the examine. “Folks had been requested a yes-or-no query: ‘Have you ever used hashish up to now yr?’ That gave us sufficient info to ascertain that in case you use hashish, your health-care journey can be completely different, however we will not know the way a lot hashish it’s a must to use, or whether or not it makes a distinction whether or not you smoke it or eat edibles. These are questions we would actually just like the solutions to. I hope this examine opens the door to extra analysis on the well being results of hashish.”
