The Change in Perceived Risk Associated with Marijuana Use in the United States from 2002 to 2012

Details

• Personal Author:
  Greenberg MI ; Okaneku J ; Vearrier D
• Description:
  Background: Over the last decade there has been considerable public debate over legalization of medical and recreational marijuana, increasing use of marijuana among residents of the United States, and increasing depictions of marijuana use on television and in the movies. We sought to determine whether there has been a change in the perceived risk associated with marijuana use over that same period of time. Methods: The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) is a questionnaire administered to a multistage probability sample of residents of the United States. For the purposes of this study, risk perception was defined as the response to: "How much do people risk harming themselves physically and in other ways when they smoke marijuana once a month [occasional use]/once or twice a week [regular use]?" Respondents to the NSDUH 2002 - 2012 surveys were asked to classify the risk as "no risk", "slight risk", "moderate risk", or "great risk". We performed regression analysis to determine whether a temporal trend existed for the perceived risk of marijuana use, while controlling for age and gender. Secondary analyses included regression analysis and Mann-Whitney U test to determine whether age or gender, respectively, were associated with marijuana use risk perception. All analyses were performed using SPSS version 20 (IBM, Somers, NY, USA). Results: A total of 614,579 respondents were identified. From 2002 - 2012 the percent of respondents who characterized regular marijuana use as being associated with "great risk" decreased from 51.3% to 40.3%, while the percent who characterized it as being associated with "no risk" increased from 5.7% to 11.7%. The percent of respondents who characterized occasional use as "great risk" decreased from 38.2% to 30.7%, while the percent who characterized it as "no risk" increased from 10% to 16.3%. There was a significant negative temporal trend in the perceived risk for both occasional and regular use of marijuana from 2002 to 2012 after controlling for age and gender (p<0.001 for both). Increasing age was significantly associated with increased perceived risk for both occasional and regular marijuana use (p<0.001). Males have a significantly lower perceived risk for both occasional and regular marijuana use as compared to females (p<0.001). Conclusions: Over the 10-year study period, there was a significant decrease in the perceived risk associated with occasional and regular marijuana use. Younger age and male gender were also associated with decreased perceived risk. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Age Factors Cannabis Epidemiology Occupational Health Risk Assessment Safety Sex Characteristics Surveys And Questionnaires
• Keywords:
  Age Factors Author Keywords: Marijuana Drug Of Abuse Drugs Gender Factors Health Surveys Marijuana Risk Analysis
• ISSN:
  1556-3650
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  52
• Issue:
  7
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20053493
• Citation:
  Clin Toxicol 2014 Aug; 52(7):711-712
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• Performing Organization:
  University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Clinical Toxicology
• End Date:
  20290630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:06b252fdd42741a914a77ea5417a60cb189ef481859aa07e54b3959355fa73356a4bfbe63e8f1bbae393df728650f19317212894269ceea68f38223e713f2704
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/216234/cdc_216234_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 118.82 KB ]