The Scottish Government added a rotavirus vaccine program into the pediatric immunization schedule in July 2013. The purpose of this study was to calculate the cost-benefit ratio of this program. Laboratory reports, hospitalizations, attendances at accident and emergency departments (A&E), general practice consultations (GP), calls to the National Health Service telephone helpline (NHS24), and prescriptions for common rehydration treatments were all identified as rotavirus-related resource use. To examine the influence on resource use across all categories, researchers utilized an interrupted time series analysis technique. Appropriate expenses were included in the models and anticipated pre- and post-vaccination mean annual expenditures were calculated. The immunization program’s cost was approximated using expenses from the literature. The immunization campaign was linked to lower utilization in all evaluated healthcare resource categories. All of these decreases were statistically significant, with p-values less than 0.001. Calls to NHS24 were reduced by 18%, while positive laboratory results were reduced by 73%. In our assessed categories, the immunization program was linked with a 38 percent reduction in yearly healthcare resource expenditures. The yearly overall cost impact of the rotavirus vaccination program was projected to be around £435,000 per 100,000 5-year-old babies.
The rotavirus vaccination program was linked with a decrease in all assessed categories of rotavirus-related resource consumption by 5-year-old babies.
Reference: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21645515.2018.1543522
