Keywords

Cannabis; Older Adults; ADLs; IADLs

Abstract

As people age, negative cognitive effects become more common, and the likelihood of chronic disease diagnoses increases. Many older adults suffer from one or more chronic health issues that have serious impacts on both their mental and physical health. Chronic pain is also known to increase in prevalence as we age. Opioid use to treat chronic pain among older adults is worrisome due to the likelihood of drug-drug interactions due to polypharmacy and the risk of problematic opioid use that can lead to overdose. Cannabis use both medical and recreational has become more acceptable among the aging adult population in the United States. Cannabis use among adults aged 65 years and older has nearly doubled in recent years and the unknown impact of cannabis on functional status has rose into question. The proposed research tests the hypotheses that when controlling for demographic and medical status, older adults using medical cannabis will differ from non-users with respect to ADL/IADL disability. Participants for this study are drawn from the longitudinal survey of the Health and Retirement Study. Participants who report cannabis use will be matched using a 1-1 ratio with those who do not report cannabis use. Cannabis use will be measured using the HRS 2018 Core Module 4: Attitude Toward and Use of Marijuana (Cannabis) in Older Americans. ADL disability will be measured using the Katz Index of Independence in Activities of Daily Living questionnaire while IADL disability will be measured using the Lawton-Brody Instrumental Activities of Daily Living questionnaire both measures can be found in the RAND HRS Longitudinal File 2020.

Thesis Completion Year

2025

Thesis Completion Semester

Spring

Thesis Chair

Paulson, Daniel

College

College of Sciences

Department

Department of Psychology

Thesis Discipline

Psychology

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus Access

None

Campus Location

Orlando (Main) Campus

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Rights Statement

In Copyright