COST EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS OF VARNISH FLUORIDE THERAPY OF STUDENTS IN URMIA’S PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Background & Aims: The high prevalence of oral and dental diseases and its high cost of treatment for the patient and health system has already become an important health issue that requires special attention of policymakers and health system administrators. The aim of this study was to determine the cost effectiveness of varnish fluoride therapy intervention. Materials & Methods: This descriptive analytic study was conducted to compare the cost effectiveness of two strategies of varnish fluoride therapy and doing nothing in primary schools in Urmia and from the service provider perspective. The research population was the total number of primary school children aged 7-12 years in Urmia. After collecting the required information, data analysis was done by decision tree model and TreeAge pro 2011 software. The incremental cost effectiveness cost ratio (ICER) was calculated and analyzed after determining the expected costs and effectiveness. Finally, sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate the power of the results by plotting the Tornado diagram. Results: The incremental cost effectiveness ratio was 12039637 Rials per QALY, varnish fluoride therapy intervention is cost effective based on the threshold defined by the WHO in this study. This means that varnish fluoride therapy can save 12039637 Rials per QALI. Also, in this study, the results were not sensitive to the chosen parameters based on results of one-sided sensitivity analysis. Conclusion: This study suggested the implementation of the varnish fluoride therapy intervention because of reduced caries and increased quality of life for individuals, as well as household savings in long run than not doing any intervention. The results of this study can also be helpful in resource allocation to prevent oral and dental illness.