SHORT REPORT
 
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
Cannabis use for medical purposes has surged in the past decade. However, understanding who medical cannabis patients are and their accompanying health issues remains limited.

Methods:
Utilizing Leafwell patient database (LPD) data from 2022, we describe the demographics and top 15 primary qualifying conditions (PQCs) of medical cannabis patients across 32 states of the United States. We employed descriptive statistics and χ2 tests to discern differences in PQCs across age, sex, and race/ethnicity. We describe the self-reported rank-order (1–5) of co-occurring conditions.

Results:
In 2022, there were 81433 new medical cannabis patients registered in the LPD, 93.2% of whom (n=75904) reported a list of the top 15 PQCs. Leading PQCs were chronic pain (n=24340), anxiety (n=20370), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (n=8517). The top 15 conditions varied across all demographics (p<0.001). Notably, a lower percentage of Hispanics reported chronic pain as their PQC compared to other race/ethnicities; a higher percentage of those aged <21 years reported insomnia as their PQC compared to older age groups. Anxiety and chronic pain were either the first or second PQC or rank-order second condition. Insomnia was a more common rank-order third condition (n=3597) and rank-order fourth condition (n=1796). PTSD was the leading rank-order fifth condition (n=784).

Conclusions:
This study underscores demographic differences across PQCs among a large sample of medical cannabis patients representing data from 36 states of the US. We note patients often report more than one medical condition, suggesting that the reasons for using medical cannabis may be more complex medically than previously understood.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
The authors have each completed and submitted an ICMJE form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. The authors declare that they have no competing interests, financial or otherwise, related to the current work. Authors MLD, DH, EF and DLM are employees of Leafwell and hold stock or stock options in Leafwell. Leafwell is a Telehealth company that connects potential medical cannabis patients to physicians in a friendly PC model. Leafwell does not produce or sell cannabis products.
FUNDING
There was no source of funding for this research. Author DJC was a paid research consultant for Leafwell.
ETHICAL APPROVAL AND INFORMED CONSENT
The project received ethics exempt status from an external, third-party Institutional Review Board, BRANY (IRB Number: IRB00000080; Date: 23 October 2023).). Patients provided informed consent.
DATA AVAILABILITY
The data supporting this research cannot be made available for privacy or other reasons.
AUTHORS' CONTRIBUTIONS
MLD, DJC and DH: conceived the study. All authors: contributed equally to the writing, reviewing and editing of the manuscript, and read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
PROVENANCE AND PEER REVIEW
Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
 
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ISSN:2654-1459
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