Background Recent trend studies suggest that marijuana use is on the rise among the general population of adults ages 18 and older in the United States. However, little is known about the trends in marijuana use and marijuana-specific risk/protective factors among American adults during the latter part of adulthood. Method Findings are based on repeated, cross-sectional data collected from late middle-aged (ages 50–64) and older adults (ages 65 and older) surveyed as part of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health between 2002 and 2014. Results The prevalence of past-year marijuana use among late middle-aged adults increased significantly from a low of 2.95% in 2003 to a high of 9.08% in 2014. Similarly, the prevalence of marijuana use increased significantly among older adults from a low of 0.15% in 2003 to a high of 2.04% in 2014. Notably, the upward trends in marijuana use remained significant even when accounting for sociodemographic, substance use, behavioral, and health-related factors. We also found that decreases in marijuana-specific protective factors were associated with the observed trend changes in marijuana use among late middle-aged and older adults, and observed a weakening of the association between late-middle aged marijuana use and risk propensity, other illicit drug use, and criminal justice system involvement over the course of the study. Conclusions Findings from the present study provide robust evidence indicating that marijuana use among older Americans has increased markedly in recent years, with the most evident changes observed between 2008 and 2014.

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Childhood obesity is of great importance given a third of children in the USA are overweight or obese. Previous research has examined neighbourhood economic context in relation to children's obesity and obesity-rated behaviours. However, different definitions and measures of neighbourhood context make it difficult to compare findings and make definitive conclusions. This review is to synthesize studies assessing the associations between neighbourhood economic context and children's obesity or obesity-related behaviours. The review included 39 studies investigating the relationship between residential neighbourhood economic context and children's obesity, dietary habits or physical activity after controlling for family-level economic status. Studies reported mixed results in the relationship between neighbourhood economic indicators and child obesity outcomes. Of reviewed studies, 60% showed an inverse association between higher neighbourhood economic status and obesity, and 33% and 14% showed positive associations between higher neighbourhood economic status and healthy dietary habits or physical activity. Several studies suggested gender, age, race/ethnicity, individual-level economic status, rurality and social connectedness as moderators in the neighbourhood-obesity association. Findings suggest that, in order to move towards causal inferences and inform interventions, future research should examine neighbourhood impacts longitudinally and test theory-driven mediators and moderators to clarify the mechanisms by which neighbourhoods influence child obesity.