 | | | | Related Healthscout Videos | |
|
Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 The authors of the new study used computer models to compare vaccinating preadolescent girls (12 years old) with vaccinating older girls and women (up to ages 18, 21 or 26) in "catch-up" programs. Among other things, the models assumed that the vaccine would confer complete immunity against cervical cancer.
"Our main findings were that preadolescent vaccinating targeting 12-year-old girls is fairly attractive," explained study leader Jane Kim, an assistant professor of health decision science at the Harvard School of Public Health. "We found consistently that catch-up vaccination up to the age of 18 was cost-effective, that extending catch-up vaccinations in women to the age of 21 was cost effective when we made very generous assumptions about vaccines' properties, and that, generally speaking, the catch-up up to age 26 was not cost-effective."
The cost-effectiveness of vaccinating 12-year-old girls was $43,600 per quality-adjusted life-year, or QALY, (under $50,000 is generally considered cost-effective). This increased to $97,300 per QALY when the vaccine was extended to girls up to age 18.
Text Continues Below
The model also found that cervical cancer rates would decrease and that screening for the cancer could begin later and occur at less-frequent intervals.
But even the study authors stressed that these conclusions are tentative.
"There's a lot of uncertainty in the data, and we had to make a lot of assumptions about the vaccine's properties," Kim explained. "We made very optimistic assumptions, and we haven't looked at the vaccine long enough to know how these assumptions will bear out."
More information
The CDC has more on HPV vaccination.
Page: << Prev | 1 | 2
|
.gif)
