Systematic review of economic evaluation studies: are vaccination programs efficient in Spain?

During the twentieth century, vaccination has been one of the measures of greatest public health impact. Vaccine administration has helped reduce the burden of disease and mortality from infectious diseases. At present, there is increasing concern about infectious diseases and the ability of health systems to control them, highlighting the need for evaluation of vaccination programs. The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review of economic evaluation studies carried out regarding Spain on vaccines.

Systematic review. Search of articles in major bibliographic databases available online from January 1983 to June 2011. References identified were limited to full economic evaluations carried out regarding Spain that evaluated vaccination programs. For each of the selected papers, a set of predefined variables were extracted.

A total of 46 studies met inclusion criteria. The topics studied were pneumococcal vaccination, influenza vaccination, Hepatitis B vaccination and varicella vaccination. Cost-minimization analysis, perspective of society, long time horizon, use of modeling techniques, and the inclusion of direct and indirect costs were the most common methodological characteristics. The results of the studies reviewed showed, in most cases, net savings or cost-effectiveness ratios below €30,000/QALY.

Although there has been an improvement in the methodological quality of studies, they still show shortcomings that should be addressed. From a public health perspective, it would be relevant to evaluate vaccines targeted to major health problems in Spain, including all relevant costs and benefits. In order to obtain a more efficient use of health resources, economic evaluation methods should be applied more rigorously and results should be used consistently in decision-making processes.