Applying a Simple Model of Cost Effectiveness Study of HPV Vaccine for Iran

HPV vaccine has been recently added to the Iran Drug List, so decision makers need information beyond that available from RCTs to recommend funding for this vaccination. Modeling and economic studies have addressed some of those information needs. We reviewed cost effectiveness studies to find a suitable model for Iranian population to determine the potential cost effectiveness of HPV vaccine program based on domestic available epidemiologic data. Articles were obtained from an extensive literature search to determine the cost effectiveness of implementing an HPV vaccination program with routine cervical cancer screening. A total of 64 studies were included in this review. Although the studies used different model structures, baseline parameters and assumptions (either a Markov, Hybrid, or Dynamic model). Most of the proposed cost effectiveness models need to model the probability of HPV acquisition, the possible progression from HPV infection to CIN I, CIN II, CIN III and cervical cancer, the probability of HPV transmission which are not available in Iranian epidemiologic data. Based on the available epidemiologic data in Iran, Chesson et al 2008, is simplified and it requires substantially fewer assumptions than the other more complex Markov and hybrid models, therefore we decided to use this model for the evaluation of cost effectiveness of HPV vaccine in Iran.