Synthetic Cannabinoid Use and Sports-Related Concussion Risk Among US Adolescents: Implications for School Health Screening and Prevention.
Saurabh Kalra, Nandakumar Nagaraja, Deepak Kalra
PMID 41490792WHAT IT FOUND
US adolescents who had ever used synthetic cannabinoids were more likely to report a past-year sports-related concussion in a survey sample of 27,482 students.
The link remained after accounting for alcohol, marijuana, mood, sleep, and demographics.
Key findings
01Synthetic cannabinoid use was more common among adolescents with sports-related TBIs (10.8%) than among those without (5.3%).
02In multivariable logistic regression, ever using synthetic cannabinoids was associated with higher odds of a sports-related TBI (adjusted odds ratio 1.48, 95% CI 1.30-1.70).
03In a sensitivity analysis excluding variables with high missingness, the synthetic cannabinoid association remained significant (adjusted odds ratio 1.80, 95% CI 1.61-2.02).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that synthetic cannabinoid use caused concussions; it only shows an association at one time point. Concussion and synthetic cannabinoid use were self-reported, so students may have underreported either. The dataset lacked detail on frequency of synthetic cannabinoid use, concussion severity, and some important confounders. Many respondents were excluded for missing key variables, although the final sample was described as comparable to the full cohort. The model explained a small proportion of variance, so these factors alone do not identify most adolescents at risk. School-level clustering could not be modelled because school identifiers were unavailable in the public data.
Declared interests
The research received no external funding, and the authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that synthetic cannabinoid use causes sports-related concussion. The data were cross-sectional and self-reported, so they show an association at one time point, not cause.