Health impact and cost effectiveness of implementing gender-neutral HPV vaccination in Japan

To assess the public health impact and cost effectiveness of gender-neutral vaccination (GNV) versus female-only vaccination (FOV) with human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in Japan.

We modeled the public health impact and cost effectiveness of GNV versus FOV to prevent HPV-associated diseases in Japan over the next 100 years. We used one-way sensitivity analyses to examine the impact of varying key model input parameters and conducted scenario analyses to explore the effects of varying the vaccination coverage rate (VCR) of each cohort.

In the base-case analysis, GNV averted additional cancer cases (17,228 female/6,033 male) and deaths (1,892 female/1,849 male) compared to FOV. When all HPV-associated diseases were considered, GNV had an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of ¥4,732,320 (US$35,987)/quality-adjusted life year gained compared to FOV. The model was most sensitive to the discount rate and the disutility associated with HPV-related diseases. GNV had greater relative public health benefits when the female VCR was lower and was cost effective at a female VCR of 30%.

Immediate implementation of GNV would reduce the disease burden and mortality associated with HPV in Japan, and would be cost effective compared to FOV if the female VCR remains low (30%).