Clinical and economic implications of increasing access to herpes zoster vaccination rate in community pharmacies

A community pharmacist plays an important role in providing vaccination to the general public in the United States. No economic models have been used to assess the impact of these services on public health and economic benefits.

This study aimed to estimate the clinical and economic implications of community pharmacy-based herpes zoster (HZ) vaccination services with a hypothetical scenario of nonpharmacy-based vaccination in the State of Utah.

A hybrid model of decision tree and Markov models was used to estimate lifetime cost and health outcomes. This open-cohort model was populated based on Utah population statistics and included a population of 50 years and older who were eligible for HZ vaccination between the years 2010 and 2020. Data were derived from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Utah Immunization Coverage Report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the CDC National Health Interview Survey, and existing literature. The analysis was performed from a societal perspective. A lifetime time horizon was used. The primary outcomes were the number of vaccination cases increased and the number of shingles and postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) cases averted. Total costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) were also estimated.

Based on a cohort of 853,550 people eligible for HZ vaccination in Utah, an additional 11,576 individuals were vaccinated in the community pharmacy-based scenario compared with the nonpharmacy-based vaccination, resulting in 706 averted cases of shingles and 143 averted cases of PHN. Community pharmacy-based HZ vaccination was less costly (-$131,894) and gained more QALYs (52.2) compared with the nonpharmacy-based vaccination. A series of sensitivity analyses showed that the findings were robust.

Community pharmacy-based HZ vaccination was less costly and gained more QALYs and was associated with improved other clinical outcomes in the State of Utah. This study might be used as a model for future evaluations of other community pharmacy-based vaccination programs in the United States.