Cost-effectiveness analysis of grass pollen specific immunotherapy in children with allergic rhinitis compared to the standard of care symptomatic treatment in Portugal
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Authors Information
1EPIUnit - Institute of Public Health, University of Porto, Portugal
2Laboratory for Integrative and Translational Research in Population Health (ITR), Porto, Portugal
3Basic and Clinical Immunology Unit, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Portugal
4CINTESIS - Center for Health Technology and Services Research (CINTESIS@RISE), Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Portugal
5São João University Hospital Center, Porto, Portugal
History
Published: 17 December 2021
Accepted: 17 December 2021
Received: 04 October 2021
SUMMARY
Background. Cost-effectiveness studies evaluating allergen immunotherapy (AIT) in children are scarce. We aim to compare the cost-effectiveness of subcutaneous (SCIT) and sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) against standard-of-care (SOC) treatment in children with grass pollen allergic rhinitis. Methods. We created a Markov model to compare the three strategies over a 10-year horizon. SOC was the reference to calculate the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analysis were used to assess models’ uncertainty. Results. We obtained an ICER of €12,605 and € 6,318 for SLIT and SCIT, respectively. In sensitivity analysis, SCIT was more cost-effective than SLIT. Conclusions. AIT is cost-effective in children with grass pollen allergic rhinitis, especially for the subcutaneous route.
