Cannabis use is associated with an increased risk of being hospitalized with severe Covid-19, researchers say.
- Covid-19 patients who used cannabis at least once in the year before developing the disease are 80% more likely to require hospitalization and 27% more likely to be admitted to intensive care than others, a study has found.
- Which corresponds, more or less, to the risk posed by smoking: cigarette smokers with Covid are respectively 72% and 22% more likely to be hospitalized and admitted to intensive care than non-smokers.
- According to the researchers, “inhaling marijuana smoke damages delicate lung tissues and makes them more vulnerable to infection.” Similarly, cannabis, which is known to impair the immune system, undermines the body’s ability to fight viral infections.
What are the profiles most at risk from Covid-19? We now know that advanced age, smoking, high body mass index or even a history of diseases such as diabetes make people infected with the coronavirus much more likely to become seriously ill, to be hospitalized and even to die.
A new study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Associationhas just confirmed that there is another decisive risk factor: cannabis consumption.
Cannabis linked to increased risk of hospitalization for Covid-19
To reach this conclusion, researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (USA) examined the health records of more than 72,000 people who consulted for a Covid-19 infection during the first two years of the pandemic. They took into account gender, age, vaccination, medical history of diabetes and heart disease, substance use (alcohol, cannabis, tobacco, vaping), as well as the characteristics of their disease (hospitalization, survival, etc.).
The team of scientists found that cannabis use was far from being “harmless” in case of Covid-19 infection, we can read in a communicatedIndeed, patients who had used cannabis, in any form, at least once in the year before the onset of the disease were much more likely to require hospitalization and intensive care than those who had not used it.
In detail, patients who used cannabis were 80% more at risk of hospitalization and 27% more at risk of admission to intensive care than others. This corresponds, more or less, to the risk posed by smoking: cigarette smokers with Covid are respectively 72% and 22% more likely to be hospitalized and admitted to intensive care than non-smokers. “The independent effect of cannabis is similar to the independent effect of tobacco with respect to the risk of hospitalization and intensive care.”
Smoke inhalation makes the lungs more vulnerable to infections
That said, the risk of cannabis use differs from that of smoking in one key measure: patient survival. “While cigarette smokers were much more likely to die from Covid-19 than non-smokers, the same was not true for cannabis users”the study underlines.
The question remains: why does cannabis use worsen viral disease? According to the researchers’ hypothesis, “Inhaling marijuana smoke damages delicate lung tissue and makes it more vulnerable to infection, much in the same way that tobacco smoke puts users at risk for pneumonia.”Another possibility: Cannabis, known to impair the immune system, undermines the body’s ability to fight viral infections, regardless of how it is consumed (inhaled or ingested).
