No Difference in Physical Activity Associated with Cannabis Use Status in a Nationally Representative Sample of U.S. Adults

Abstract

Background: Prior research examining the relationship between cannabis use, sedentary behavior, and physical activity has generated conflicting findings, potentially due to biases in the self-reported measures used to assess physical activity. This study aimed to more precisely explore the relationship between cannabis use and sedentary behavior/physical activity using objective measures. Methods: Data were obtained from the 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. 2,092 participants (ages 20-59; 48.8% female) had accelerometer-measured sedentary behavior, light physical activity, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Participants were classified as a current cannabis user if they reported any use over the previous 30 days. Multivariable linear regression estimated minutes engaged in sedentary behavior/physical activity for current versus non-current cannabis users. Logistic regression modeled self-reported moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in relation to current cannabis use. Results: Fully-adjusted regression models indicated that current cannabis users’ objectively-measured sedentary behavior/physical activity did not significantly differ from non-current users. There were no significant associations between self-reported moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and cannabis use. Conclusions: This study is the first to evaluate the relationship between cannabis use and accelerometer-measured sedentary behavior and physical activity. Such objective measures should be used in other cohorts to replicate our finding that current cannabis use is not significantly associated with sedentary behavior/physical activity in order to fully assess the potential public health impact of recent increases in cannabis use.

Chronic cannabis consumption and physical exercise performance in healthy adults: a systematic review

“…Two studies included in this review employed self-reported measures of physical activity levels, finding no significant differences between cannabis users and non-users, consistent with Ong et al's ( 2020 ) analysis of accelerometer detected physical activity, which determined no difference in light or moderate/vigorous physical activity between 249 cannabis users and 1843 non-users. Contrastingly, several longitudinal studies found significantly more cannabis users meeting WHO guidelines for physical activity than non-users (Korn et al 2018 ; Ngueta et al 2015 ; Rajavashisth et al 2012 ).…”