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PEDIATRICS Vol. 108 No. 2 August 2001, pp. 317-325

Economic Evaluation of a 2-Dose Hepatitis B Vaccination Regimen for Adolescents

Received May 9, 2000; accepted Nov 27, 2000.

Hugh P. Levaux*, Warren H. Schonfeld*, James M. PellissierDagger , William M. Cassidy§, Sara K. Sheriff*, and Catherine Fitzsimonparallel

From * The Lewin Group, San Francisco, California; Dagger  Clinical and Health Economic Statistics, Merck Research Laboratories, West Point, Pennsylvania; § Louisiana State University, Health Science Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and parallel  Quintiles Canada Inc, Quebec, Canada.

Objective.  To investigate the economic implications of a 2-dose hepatitis B virus vaccination regimen compared with the current 3-dose vaccination regimen for adolescents in 3 settings: public schools, public health clinics, and private sector settings in the United States.

Methods.  To measure resource utilization and costs associated with the administration of the 3-dose regimen and to assess vaccination compliance rates with this regimen, primary data were collected with the use of questionnaires tailored for each setting. Conservative modeling assumptions were used to derive 2-dose compliance rates from 3-dose compliance data. The results were incorporated into a decision analytic model, which was used to examine short-term and lifetime scenarios for an adolescent cohort receiving the 2-dose versus the 3-dose regimen. In the short-term analysis, the vaccination program costs were compared for the 2 regimens. In the lifetime analysis, the model also incorporated long-term disease costs for those individuals who contract hepatitis B.

Results.  Predicted increases in compliance with a 2-dose vaccination regimen contributed to a higher probability of seroprotection in each setting. In the lifetime analysis, this positive impact of improved compliance resulted in a lower infection rate and greater cost-effectiveness for the 2-dose regimen in all settings, including private sector settings, where it cost an average of only $964 per year of life gained, and in public schools, costing an average of $1246 per year of life gained. In public health clinics, the 2-dose regimen had both lower expected lifetime costs and better clinical outcomes than the 3-dose regimen. In the short-term analysis, costs were higher for the 2-dose regimen, reflecting higher total vaccine acquisition costs without the long-term offset of cost savings from reduced infection. Sensitivity analyses identified cost per dose of vaccine and the probability of completing the regimens as the most sensitive model variables.

Conclusions.  Improved compliance with a 2-dose regimen would contribute to a higher probability of adolescents' achieving seroprotection. When the long-term consequences of hepatitis B virus infection are included, the 2-dose regimen would be cost-effective compared with the 3-dose regimen in all settings and cost saving in public health clinic settings.  Key words:  hepatitis B virus, hepatitis B virus vaccination, decision analytic modeling, vaccine administration, compliance, adolescent immunization, cost-effectiveness.




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