{"doi":"10.1016/j.puhip.2021.100195","title":"Marijuana use and high-risk health behaviors among diverse college students post- legalization of recreational marijuana use","abstract":"This study examined high-risk health behaviors in marijuana-users among a diverse college population in Southern California, post legalization of marijuana for recreational use. A cross-sectional research design was employed utilizing existing data via the 2018 National College Health Assessment (NCHA) from a large Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) population [n = 1345 (Hispanic/Latino/a, n = 456; White, n = 353; Asian Pacific Islander (API), n = 288; Multiracial/Biracial, n = 195; Other, n = 53)]. Chi square and t-tests assessed differences in descriptive characteristics (age, gender, race/ethnicity and GPA) and high-risk behaviors (alcohol, tobacco and sexual behaviors) among marijuana users and non-users. Logistic regression analyses examined the relationship between race/ethnicity and high-risk behaviors with marijuana use (dependent variable). Among marijuana-users, significant (p = 0.004) differences were observed between race/ethnicity with Whites reporting using most (32.7%), followed by Hispanics (27.6%) and then APIs (17.8%). Marijuana-users compared with non-users consistently reported high-risk alcohol behaviors (p < 0.0001), were more likely to smoke tobacco (p < 0.0001) and engaged in more high-risk sexual behaviors (p < 0.0001). Logistic regression showed after adjusting for demographic characteristics and high-risk behaviors, race/ethnicity was borderline significantly associated with marijuana use, specifically for Whites (OR = 1.53; 95% CI: (−0.01, 0.86), p = 0.06) and the Other race/ethnicity category (OR = 2.32; 95% CI: (0.12, 1.56), p = 0.02) compared with APIs. Our findings clearly demonstrate deleterious high-risk behaviors such as alcohol use, tobacco use, and certain sexual behaviors occur more among marijuana-users compared to non-users, post legalization of marijuana for recreational use. Further, race-ethnic differences were observed. Therefore, continued examination of marijuana use trends and high-risk behaviors is critical in monitoring the implications of marijuana policy changes, specifically in diverse populations.","journal":"Public Health in Practice","year":2021,"id":184139,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":12,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8516,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":738672,"name":"Aimn W. Abdujawad","orcid":"0000-0002-9464-5445","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":449553,"name":"Sinjini Mitra","orcid":"0000-0002-6099-2465","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":232529,"name":"Archana J. McEligot","orcid":"0009-0001-9537-2434","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":738671,"name":"Laura Chandler","orcid":"0000-0003-0652-6276","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":47,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:48:26.340498Z","pmid":"34888536","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}