A new cost-utility analysis assessing risk factor-guided prophylaxis with palivizumab for the prevention of severe respiratory syncytial virus infection in Italian infants born at 29–35 weeks’ gestational age
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Since the last Italian cost-utility assessment of palivizumab in 2009, new data on the burden of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and an International Risk Scoring Tool (IRST) have become available. The objective of this study was to provide an up-to-date cost-utility assessment of palivizumab versus no prophylaxis for the prevention of severe RSV infection in otherwise healthy Italian infants born at 29-31 weeks' gestational age (wGA) infants and those 32-35wGA infants categorized as either moderate- or high-risk of RSV-hospitalization (RSVH) by the IRST. A decision tree was constructed in which infants received palivizumab or no prophylaxis and then could experience: i) RSVH; ii) emergency room medically-attended RSV-infection (MARI); or, iii) remain uninfected/non-medically attended. RSVH cases that required intensive care unit admission could die (0.43%). Respiratory morbidity was considered in all surviving infants up to 18 years of age. Hospitalization rates were derived from Italian data combined with efficacy from the IMpact-RSV trial. Palivizumab costs were calculated from vial prices (50mg: €490.37 100mg: €814.34) and Italian birth statistics combined with a growth algorithm. A lifetime horizon and healthcare and societal costs were included. The incremental cost-utility ratio (ICUR) was €14814 per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained in the whole population (mean: €15430; probability of ICUR being <€40000: 0.90). The equivalent ICURs were €15139 per QALY gained (€15915; 0.89) for 29-31wGA infants and €14719 per QALY gained (€15230; 0.89) for 32-35wGA infants. The model was most sensitive to rates of long-term sequelae, utility scores, palivizumab cost, and palivizumab efficacy. Palivizumab remained cost-effective in all scenario analyses, including a scenario wherein RSVH infants received palivizumab without a reduction in long-term sequelae and experienced a 6-year duration of respiratory morbidity (ICUR: €27948 per QALY gained). In conclusion, palivizumab remains cost-effective versus no prophylaxis in otherwise healthy Italian preterm infants born 29-35wGA. The IRST can help guide cost-effective use of palivizumab in 32-35wGA infants.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.005 | 0.011 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.002 | 0.004 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".