Differential Utility Losses in Herpes Zoster Cases Between Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Subjects: A Meta-analysis of...

Recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV) is approved in adults for the prevention of herpes zoster. The effect of RZV in moderating the severity of breakthrough cases of herpes zoster has been noted but not explicitly quantified before. In this study, a meta-analysis was undertaken to estimate differential utility losses between unvaccinated (Placebo) and vaccinated (RZV) subjects in breakthrough cases of herpes zoster from three RZV clinical trials.

Differential utility losses between the two groups were estimated in units of quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), leveraging aggregate patient data from the ZOE-50 (NCT01165177), ZOE-70 (NCT01165229), and ZOE-HSCT (NCT01610414) clinical trials. Differential utility losses and the ratio of mean utility losses were analyzed using random-effects and fixed-effects meta-regression models.

The mean QALY loss differences between the unvaccinated (Placebo) and vaccinated (RZV) groups were 0.008, 0.004, and 0.011 in the ZOE-50, ZOE-70, and ZOE-HSCT studies, respectively, yielding an overall estimated difference of 0.007 (95% confidence interval 0.002-0.012) QALYs. Quality-adjusted life-year loss in the vaccinated group was estimated to be 35.5% of the value in the placebo group. A sensitivity analysis estimated an overall difference of 0.005 (95% confidence interval 0.001-0.009) QALYs, corresponding to 48.6% of the QALY loss value in the placebo group.

Recombinant zoster vaccine is effective in alleviating disease severity in breakthrough cases of herpes zoster. The results may be useful in distinguishing QALY losses between vaccinated and unvaccinated cohorts in health economics studies, particularly cost-effectiveness analyses.