CCC Culture
Aug 13, 2023
Study finds increased cannabis-related emergency room visits among senior citizens
A recent story by Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN highlights an interesting trend - senior citizens (65 or older) are the fastest growing group of cannabis users in the United States. The article does highlight many positive progressions about the perception of cannabis among senior citizens and beyond, such as a 94 year old who found solice in cannabis at 91, and Charlotte Figi, a child patient using CBD for seizures.
The main issue occurs in the middle of the article when back to back studies are mentioned. The first study centers around an increase in cannabis-related ER visits amongst senior citizens, immediately followed by a statistic about senior citizen emergency room visits related to falls. The lack of context provided by CNN fails to mention that the cannabis ER study was limited to California, and the proclaimed increased risk for falls isn't exclusive to cannabis.
The study for senior citizen ER visits has two main issues with clarity and significance, so we'll cover each point individually:
1. The cited numbers are presented in a way to make the reader believe the issue is far more out of control than it is in actuality. The link in the CNN article goes to a summarized version of the senior citizen study on UC San Diego Health's news website. The first statistic states an 1808% relative increase in the rate of cannabis-related trips to the emergency department among California adults ages 65 and older from 2005 to 2019. If you drill one level deeper to the original study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, you'll notice the raw numbers. In 2005, there were reportedly 20.7 cannabis-related visits out of every 100,000 ER visits overall amongst senior citizens. In 2019, the rate increased to 395 out of every 100,000 visits. In other words, that 1808% increase came from 0.0207% of visits in 2005, to 0.395% of visits in 2019 - BOTH LESS THAN ONE PERCENT OF TOTAL OCCURRENCES. This brings us to the next point - trusting the validity of the data at face value.
2. Substantially low p-value of 0.001. Essentially, the extremely low p-value indicates a high level of confidence that the observed increase in cannabis-related ED visits among these different groups is not a random fluctuation but rather a meaningful and significant trend. What's the significance of the trend though? Is it the danger of cannabis itself among senior citizens, or could it be a combination of other variables molding this data? Lets explore a couple of them:
Technological Changes
From 2005 to 2019 society has seen signifant changes in the tech space such as mobile phones and internet, cloud computing upgrades, social media advancements, and collection of biometric data to name a few. Many hospitals have the ability to check in on mobile devices the last few years, which potentially affects a person's willingness to disclose personal information such as cannabis use to a mobile screen, rather than a human being. This would also affect reporting data overall.
Legalization Changes
Although California first legalized cannabis for medical use in 1996, the level of uncertainty around enforcement was high. Taxation and regulation support didn't occur until 2005. In 2009, the Obama administration became the first to federally support state-level cannabis laws, and in 2010, Governor Schwarzenegger signed legislation decriminalizing less than an ounce. Finally, in 2016, Proposition 64 took place, legalizing recreational use. There were other significant events in between these moments, and you can review those on this timeline of cannabis legalization in California.
Cultural Changes
Significant technological and legalization changes helped precipitate cultural changes as well. The interconnectivity of all of society bringing collective knowledge and testimonials at a world-wide scale is bucking mainstream narratives that our senior citizens were formerly subjected to without reproach. The idea of mass scale collective support for the plant and its benefits aligns with one of the most classic theories - Bandwagon Effect, first coined in 1848, nearly two centuries ago. Since this study took place, it's getting even easier to see how this collective cultural shift has permeated through the senior citizen demographic. Furthermore, many hospital self-reporting forms used to commonly group marijuana with other illegal schedule-one drugs such as cocaine and heroine, but more recently it's common to see marijuana separated from these substances which likely affects the reporting rates once again.
Using statistics to lie or bend the truth is nothing new, but it's still important to openly review and challenge the conclusions being drawn from data and studies. As demonstrated in this example, bringing context to data can change the perception and significance of the data. Sniping and sharing headlines is as common, and equally dangerous as ever, so remember that the next time you see a claim from a "trusted" news source.