tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
OTTAWA ? When Ontario started offering free flu shots to its entire population instead of only to targeted groups, it made a cost-effective decision that saves lives, a new study concludes.
Researchers at the University of Toronto conducted an extensive cost-analysis of the universal seasonal flu vaccination program, introduced in 2000, and compared the numbers to the cost and success of the targeted program, had it been continued.
"The main conclusion is that it is cost-effective," said the study's lead researcher, Beate Sander. "It doesn't mean it's necessarily cost-saving, but it provides very good value for money," she said of the universal program.
Most provinces and territories offer free seasonal flu vaccinations to senior citizens, people with chronic conditions that put them at higher-risk of suffering serious complications if they contract influenza and to health-care workers. Ontario is the only jurisdiction to offer free flu shots to everyone, at about twice the cost of offering only a targeted program, and this is the first major study to evaluate whether it's worth the price tag.
Sander said the $40 million spent on the universal seasonal flu shot campaign is "very, very good value for money."
The widespread flu shot campaign drove up vaccination rates in Ontario from only 18 per cent of the population in 1996 to 42 per cent in 2005. Analyzing data on influenza-related deaths, hospitalizations, and visits to emergency rooms and doctors' offices between 1997 and 2004, the study found that flu-related events in the overall population dropped 40 to 60 per cent more in Ontario than in three other provinces studied (Alberta, Quebec and Manitoba).
Specifically, the researchers determined that more than 34,000 flu cases were prevented, 111 deaths were avoided, about 780 hospitalizations and 7,745 emergency room visits were prevented and about 30,000 fewer Ontarians visited a doctor for flu symptoms.
Sander said it's possible something else happened to drive down the numbers over the years studied, but that the study controlled for many factors and she believes the universal vaccination program had a "true effect" on the reduced rates of illness and death.
Preventing thousands of people from getting sick and needing health care translated into savings of $7.8 million per year for Ontario's health system, the researchers calculated.
While that doesn't fully offset the cost of the program, it still makes economic sense when a measure known as quality-adjusted life years (QALY) is taken into account, according to Sander. It's a method of quantifying the quality of a year of life, on a scale of zero to one. A year in perfect health would score a one whereas someone sick in bed for months may have a QALY equal to 0.5.
The review, published Tuesday in the journal PLoS Medicine, found that the cost to generate one year of perfect health through universal influenza vaccination was $10,797. In Canada, an initiative is considered cost-effective for the health system if it costs less than $50,000 to gain one QALY.
With so much attention paid to influenza vaccines recently because of the H1N1 pandemic, the study's findings should be of interest to provincial governments that may be considering revamping their vaccine delivery programs.
There was heightened demand for seasonal flu shots among the general population last year as many people rolled up their sleeves for one at the same time as getting their H1N1 vaccination.
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/heal...ective+Study/2770113/story.html#ixzz0kOmX2uTP
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000256
Researchers at the University of Toronto conducted an extensive cost-analysis of the universal seasonal flu vaccination program, introduced in 2000, and compared the numbers to the cost and success of the targeted program, had it been continued.
"The main conclusion is that it is cost-effective," said the study's lead researcher, Beate Sander. "It doesn't mean it's necessarily cost-saving, but it provides very good value for money," she said of the universal program.
Most provinces and territories offer free seasonal flu vaccinations to senior citizens, people with chronic conditions that put them at higher-risk of suffering serious complications if they contract influenza and to health-care workers. Ontario is the only jurisdiction to offer free flu shots to everyone, at about twice the cost of offering only a targeted program, and this is the first major study to evaluate whether it's worth the price tag.
Sander said the $40 million spent on the universal seasonal flu shot campaign is "very, very good value for money."
The widespread flu shot campaign drove up vaccination rates in Ontario from only 18 per cent of the population in 1996 to 42 per cent in 2005. Analyzing data on influenza-related deaths, hospitalizations, and visits to emergency rooms and doctors' offices between 1997 and 2004, the study found that flu-related events in the overall population dropped 40 to 60 per cent more in Ontario than in three other provinces studied (Alberta, Quebec and Manitoba).
Specifically, the researchers determined that more than 34,000 flu cases were prevented, 111 deaths were avoided, about 780 hospitalizations and 7,745 emergency room visits were prevented and about 30,000 fewer Ontarians visited a doctor for flu symptoms.
Sander said it's possible something else happened to drive down the numbers over the years studied, but that the study controlled for many factors and she believes the universal vaccination program had a "true effect" on the reduced rates of illness and death.
Preventing thousands of people from getting sick and needing health care translated into savings of $7.8 million per year for Ontario's health system, the researchers calculated.
While that doesn't fully offset the cost of the program, it still makes economic sense when a measure known as quality-adjusted life years (QALY) is taken into account, according to Sander. It's a method of quantifying the quality of a year of life, on a scale of zero to one. A year in perfect health would score a one whereas someone sick in bed for months may have a QALY equal to 0.5.
The review, published Tuesday in the journal PLoS Medicine, found that the cost to generate one year of perfect health through universal influenza vaccination was $10,797. In Canada, an initiative is considered cost-effective for the health system if it costs less than $50,000 to gain one QALY.
With so much attention paid to influenza vaccines recently because of the H1N1 pandemic, the study's findings should be of interest to provincial governments that may be considering revamping their vaccine delivery programs.
There was heightened demand for seasonal flu shots among the general population last year as many people rolled up their sleeves for one at the same time as getting their H1N1 vaccination.
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/heal...ective+Study/2770113/story.html#ixzz0kOmX2uTP
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000256
