Interventions to Increase HPV Vaccine Coverage Cost-Effective

MONDAY, Nov. 16, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Three interventions for increased human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine coverage are cost-effective, according to a study published online Nov. 16 in Pediatrics.

Jennifer C. Spencer, Ph.D., from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues developed a dynamic simulation model of HPV transmission and progression scaled to a medium-sized U.S. state. No intervention was compared to one-year implementation of recall for HPV vaccination, school-located HPV vaccination, or quality improvement (QI) visits to primary care clinics to model outcome over 50 years.

The researchers found that relative to no intervention, all interventions were cost-effective. The lowest cost and cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained were seen for QI visits ($1,538 versus no intervention). Compared with QI visits, statewide implementation of centralized reminders and recalls cost $28,289 per QALY gained. The highest cost was seen for school-located vaccination, which was cost-effective at $18,337 per QALY gained compared with QI visits. Interventions could avert 3,000 to 14,000 future HPV cancers scaling to the U.S. population. Interventions were typically preferred to no intervention when varying intervention cost and impact over feasible ranges; cost-effectiveness varied between intervention strategies.

“Policy makers and advocates should consider devoting resources to more intensive interventions, including reminder and recall or school-located vaccination, which could prevent thousands of HPV cancers in the United States in the coming decades,” the authors write.

Abstract/Full Text