Gender Compression Over Time in Measures of Cannabis Use by Age and Cohort in the United States

Michael Vuolo , The Ohio State University
Maria Orsini, The Ohio State University
Brian Kelly, Purdue University
Amanda Roxburgh, Burnet Institute

Various measures of cannabis use have historically shown males as having higher prevalence of use, higher dependency rates, and as viewing cannabis as less risky. However, as U.S. cannabis policy shifts rapidly, the literature has been mixed on whether the gap in these measures between males and females is increasing or decreasing. We use twenty years of nationally representative data from the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health to examine trends by gender in cannabis use (lifetime, pre-18, past month, and daily), cannabis dependence, and perceptions of risk. By paying specific attention to changes by age and cohort over time, we show how there has been substantial gender compression across nearly every metric of cannabis use – a conclusion that can be overlooked if simply looking at the trend over time without respect to age and cohort. While this compression over time is especially pronounced in adolescence and early adulthood, some degree of compression has occurred across all ages as cohorts progress. Our results suggest that some of the increase in indicators of cannabis use may be due to females converging on male rates of use rather than increases among males. The degree of gender compression underscores that prevention and intervention efforts should incorporate gender-specific needs to improve population health.

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 Presented in Session 67. Flash session Social and Behavioral Determinants of Health, Wellbeing and Morbidity