Rising trend of acute myocardial infarction among young cannabis users: A 10-year nationwide gender and race stratified analysis

BACKGROUND: The use of cannabis has massively increased among younger patients due to increasing legalization and availability. METHODS: We performed a retrospective nationwide study using the Nationwide inpatient sample (NIS) database to analyze the trends of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in young cannabis users and related outcomes among patients aged 18–49 years from 2007 to 2018, using ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes. RESULTS: Out of 819,175 hospitalizations, 230,497 (28%) admissions reported using cannabis. There was a significantly higher number of males (78.08% vs. 71.58%, p < 0.0001) and African Americans (32.22% vs. 14.06%, p < 0.0001) admitted with AMI and reported cannabis use. The incidence of AMI among cannabis users consistently increased from 2.36% in 2007 to 6.55% in 2018. Similarly, the risk of AMI in cannabis users among all races increased, with the biggest increase in African Americans from 5.69% to 12.25%. In addition, the rate of AMI in cannabis users among both sexes showed an upward trend, from 2.63% to 7.17% in males and 1.62%–5.12% in females. CONCLUSION: The incidence of AMI in young cannabis users has increased in recent years. The risk is higher among males and African Americans.