The cost-effectiveness of penicillin allergy testing: Evidence and gaps from a systematic review

Patients with a penicillin allergy label (PAL) use more and broader-spectrum antibiotics, have worse health outcomes and cost more to treat than patients without a PAL. A significant proportion of penicillin allergy labels are incorrect; here we review the published evidence on the costs, health-related quality of life, and cost-effectiveness of penicillin allergy testing.

We conducted a systematic review of published economic evaluations of penicillin allergy testing in accordance with Cochrane guidelines. We searched Medline, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, EconPapers (RePeC) and the International HTA Database (INAHTA) and included reports of full or partial economic evaluations of costs and/or health benefits of penicillin allergy testing strategies. The outcomes of interest were healthcare resource use, medical costs, and health-related quality of life for patients with a penicillin allergy label and for patients with the label removed, and cost-effectiveness. We evaluated the methodological quality of the studies using a published checklist designed for systematic reviews. The review followed a narrative synthesis.

Thirty-six studies met the inclusion criteria. Most studies analysed the effect of testing on the costs of antibiotic use among patients admitted to hospital with a PAL. Studies measured costs of testing (n = 19); antibiotic medication use (n = 23); adverse reactions with penicillin use (n = 4), alternative antibiotic drugs (n = 3); length of hospital stay (n = 5); subsequent health care use episodes (n = 4); and antibiotic medication use in subsequent care episodes (n = 3). The median cost of skin testing plus oral challenge across six primary costing studies was USD 246 (range: 164, 514), which contrasts with the USD 42-258 range of antibiotic cost savings during the initial hospital admission. Two studies presented evidence that penicillin allergy testing is cost-saving in an outpatient setting over 3.5-4.5 years. One model-based study reported that testing in inpatient settings is cost-saving. No reports on the effect of penicillin allergy testing on health-related quality of life were found and the two cost-effectiveness studies that accounted for this outcome employed the opinion of healthcare professional or an assumption of a common generic value for adverse reactions.

While penicillin allergy testing shows promise in reducing antibiotic costs, the evidence remains insufficient to definitively establish whether these savings consistently outweigh testing costs across various healthcare settings.