Around 23% of Americans aged 18 or older have reportedly used cannabis in the last year. Between 18 and 26% of people who use cannabis develop CUD, which is linked to comorbidities and impairments, including cognitive decline, impaired educational or occupational attainment, other substance use and use disorders, and lower quality of life.
Despite its widespread use, understanding of how cannabis affects workplace absenteeism- a key marker of workplace productivity- remains limited. Studies report positive, negative and null associations. Further research is thus needed to understand how cannabis use affects workplace absenteeism.
In the current study, researchers analyzed data from 46, 499 respondents aged 18 years and older from the 2021 to 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. In particular, the researchers examined measures of cannabis use recency, past-month cannabis use frequency, CUD severity, and workplace absenteeism which was defined as self-reported number of days missed due to illness or injury and skipped work in the last 30 days.
Ultimately, the researchers found that around 15.9% of full-time employed adults used cannabis in the last month, and that 6.5% met CUD criteria. People without CUD but who had used cannabis within the past month missed an average of 1.47 work days due to illness. For those without prior cannabis use, the mean number of sick days was 0.95.
Overall, past-month cannabis use, more frequent past-month use and CUD were linked to an increased incidence of missing work due to illness or injury and skipping work. A dose-response relationship was observed between CUD severity and skipping work, with people who had CUD being up to 2.87 times more likely to miss or skip work compared to those without the condition.
“Individuals with recent and frequent cannabis use and CUD are disproportionately prone to workplace absenteeism. Results support the enforcement of workplace drug prevention and treatment policies,” concluded the researchers in their paper.
Sources: American Journal of Preventive Medicine, EurekAlert