Cannabidiol Use Among Older Adults: Associations with Cannabis Use, Physical and Mental Health, and Other Substance Use

Objectives: To examine older adults' cannabidiol (CBD) use and its associations with cannabis use and physical/mental health and other substance use problems.

Methods: Using the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (N = 10,516 respondents age 50+), we fitted generalized linear models (GLM) with Poisson and log link using CBD as the dependent variable in the 50-64 and the 65+ age groups.

Results: In the 50-64 age group, 18.3% and 18.0% reported past-year CBD and cannabis, respectively, use. In the 65+ age group, the percentages were 14.3% and 8.0%. GLM results showed significant positive associations with both medical and non-medical cannabis use in both age groups. CBD use was positively associated with physical/mental health and illicit drug use problems in the 50-64 age group and with disordered psychotherapeutic drug use in the 65+ age group. Minoritized older adults had a lower likelihood of CBD use.

Conclusions: CBD use is common, more so than cannabis especially in the 65+ age group and positively correlated with both medical and nonmedical cannabis use.

Clinical implications: Research is needed to examine therapeutic benefits and negative effects of CBD use in late life. Public health education is needed for growing numbers of older-adult CBD users.