Who 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 illnesses 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 American Medical Associationhas just confirmed that there is another decisive risk factor: cannabis consumption.
Cannabis associated with increased risk of hospitalization for Covid-19
To reach this conclusion, researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine, in Saint Louis (United States), 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 illness (hospitalization, survival…).
The team of scientists found that cannabis consumption was far from being “inoffensive” in the event of infection with Covid-19, we can read in a press release. Indeed, patients who had used cannabis, regardless of its form, at least once during the year preceding the onset of the disease were much more likely to require hospitalization and intensive care than those who did not. had not touched.
In detail, cannabis user patients were 80% more at risk of hospitalization and 27% more at risk of admission to intensive care than others. 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. “The independent effect of cannabis is similar to the independent effect of tobacco with respect to the risk of hospitalization and intensive care.”
Inhaling smoke makes the lungs more vulnerable to infections
That said, the risk of cannabis consumption differs from that of smoking for 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”thus underlines the study.
The question remains: why does cannabis use make viral illness worse? According to the researchers’ hypothesis, “Inhaling marijuana smoke damages delicate lung tissues and makes them more vulnerable to infection, in the same way that tobacco smoke puts users at risk of 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).
