COST-EFFECTIVENESS STUDY IN THE PREVACCINATION SCREENING-TESTS IN VACCINATION AGAINST HEPATITIS-B IN HOSPITAL PERSONNEL

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to know the cost-effectiveness of a vaccination program of hospital personnel against hepatitis B as compared to vaccination strategy with previous screening tests versus vaccination without screening. METHODS: The costs of the process of vaccination with and without previous screening tests for hospital personnel (first year residents = MIR R1 and staff doctors) was calculated taking, not only the cost of the vaccinations, but also the costs of withdrawal, injection, antibody determination and the displacement costs of the subject into account. RESULTS: In the case of a MIR-R1, the cost of vaccination without previous screening is 12,492 pesetas, with the cost for a staff doctor being 15,092 pesetas. The vaccination strategy with previous antibody screening tests is only profitable with prevalences of 28.77 % of positivity in the case of MIR-R1 and 29.55 % in staff doctors. CONCLUSIONS: This study defends the elimination of previous antibody screening tests in vaccination against hepatitis B since the legal obligation of previous screening tests is no longer applicable. Moreover, vaccination is practically innocuous and prevaccination screening tests are only profitable with prevalences os seropositivity higher than 28 % in the case of MIR-RI and 29.55 % in the case of staff doctors which are ciphers much higher than those of the prevalence of seropositivity normally found among Spanish hospital personnel.