Study: Maternal Marijuana Use Not Linked to Retinopathy of Prematurity in Preterm Infants

OG article by Anthony Martinelli

February 4, 2026

A large study in the Journal of American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus found no link between maternal marijuana use disorder during pregnancy and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in preterm infants. University of California San Diego researchers reviewed 31,110 singleton preterm births (2011-2020) from their database, focusing on infants under 31 weeks gestation or below 1,500 grams who survived for ROP screening. Of 997 infants born to mothers with marijuana use disorder, 32.1% developed ROP, compared to 33.3% among 30,113 without the diagnosis. After adjusting for factors like smoking, alcohol, mental health, hypertension, and socioeconomic status, the adjusted relative risk was 1.0 (no significant difference). Severe ROP rates were similar (4.5% vs. 5.0%). ROP, a potentially blinding condition from abnormal retinal vessel growth, is tied to prematurity and low birth weight—risks linked to marijuana—but the study showed no independent effect from marijuana use disorder. Limitations include reliance on diagnostic codes, which may miss details on use frequency, timing, or method, plus possible racial biases in screening.