Objective: To estimate the potential economic benefits associated with hospital-based postpartum influenza vaccination.
Methods: We constructed a decision analysis model to estimate the potential cost benefit of this strategy from both a societal perspective and a third-party perspective. We included a hypothetical cohort of 1.47 million U.S. postpartum women, assuming an influenza season beginning September 1 and ending April 30. Probabilities and costs were derived from published literature, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, and expert recommendations. We used one-way and two-way sensitivity analyses. All cost estimates were inflated to year 2010 U.S. dollars and discounted at a 3% annual discount rate.
Results: From the societal perceptive, the expected costs per vaccinated and unvaccinated mother were $328.45 and $341.02 respectively, resulting in an expected net benefit of $12.57 per vaccinated mother. The overall savings in the cohort were predicted to range from $3.69 to $14.75 million, depending on the vaccination coverage rate. This strategy would be cost-beneficial, holding all other variables to the base case, if the annual maternal influenza attack rate is more than 2.8%, influenza vaccine efficacy is more than 47%, or if vaccine acquisition and administration cost per dose are less than $32.78. The strategy would not generate net savings from the third-party perspective. Sensitivity analyses were robust, but disease incidence and vaccine efficacy were important drivers.
Conclusion: Our model suggests that postpartum influenza vaccination is a cost-beneficial approach for prevention of maternal and infantile influenza from a societal perspective.
Level of evidence: III.