New research was presented at FMX 2020, the 2020 American Academy of Family Physicians virtual Family Medicine Experience, from October 13-17. The features below highlight some of the studies emerging from the conference.
With previous studies regarding an association between marijuana and obesity providing conflicting results and most studies in this area conducted on adults, researchers conducted a study to test the hypothesis that marijuana use in U.S. high school adolescents is associated with a higher BMI than non-use. Using data from the National Survey of Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System published in 2017 by the CDC, the study team assessed high school students from all 50 states and Washington, DC who answered survey questions about weight, height, and marijuana use. While former marijuana users had a higher odds of being overweight or obese when compared with never users (odds ratio [OR], 1.20) in an adjusted model, no such independent association was seen with current smokers (OR, 0.99). Other factors associated with being overweight and obese in the adjusted model were being African American (OR, 1.60) or Hispanic (OR, 1.65), cigarette smoking (OR, 1.37), and alcohol use (OR, 1.03).
