Cannabis use linked to arterial stiffness in men

Use of cannabis is associated with arterial stiffness index (ASI), suggests a recent study, noting that this link may be considered in “accurate and appropriate” strategies to reduce cardiovascular risk among cannabis users.

Study authors assessed the use of cannabis in 46,219 volunteers of the middle-aged UK Biobank population through questionnaires. They also analysed several aspects of cannabis use (ie, lifetime, frequency, and current status).

Sex multiple linear regressions were used to estimate the associations between cannabis use and ASI. Covariates included tobacco status, diabetes dyslipidaemia, alcohol status, BMI categories, hypertension, mean blood pressure, and heart rate.

Compared with women, men had higher ASI levels (9.826 vs 8.578 m/s; p<0.001) and greater proportions of heavy lifetime cannabis use (4.0 percent vs 1.9 percent; p<0.001), current cannabis use (3.1 percent vs 1.7 percent; p<0.001), current smoking (8.4 percent vs 5.8 percent; p<0.001) and alcohol use (95.6 percent vs 93.4 percent; p<0.001).

After adjusting for all covariates in sex models, heavy lifetime cannabis use correlated with higher ASI levels in men (b, 0.19, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.02‒0.35) but not in women (b, ‒0.02, 95 percent CI, ‒0.23 to 0.19).

In addition, current cannabis use correlated with increased ASI levels in men (b, 0.17, 95 percent CI, 0.01‒0.32) but not in women (b, ‒0.01, 95 percent CI, ‒0.20 to 0.18). Among cannabis users, every day frequency correlated with higher ASI levels in men (b, 0.29, 95 percent CI, 0.07‒0.51) but not in women (b, 0.10, 95 percent CI, ‒0.17 to 0.37).