CESAV, Centre of Health Economics, Mario Negri Institute, Via Camozzi, 3 c/o Villa Camozzi, 24020 Ranica (Bergamo), Italy.
Health Policy. 2011 Sep;102(1):89-95. doi: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2010.10.011. Epub 2010 Nov 19.
To contribute to the debate whether extending public coverage of influenza vaccination to healthy workers is cost-effective, particularly in the perspective of EU countries.
First, we reviewed the recent international literature on the extension of vaccination to subjects aged 50-64 years in highly developed countries. Second, we estimated the broad economic impact of influenza vaccination on the Italian healthy adult working population. Finally, we ran a pilot observational study to assess the healthcare and labour outcomes of influenza vaccination on the employees of our organization.
The methodological weaknesses of the studies reviewed, all built on models, undermine the credibility of their optimistic results. The more cautious the model design, the less favourable the final results, as our conservative analysis on the Italian setting confirmed. The only common result was a steady relationship between potential vaccination benefits and indirect costs of absenteeism from work. This "modelling-based evidence" was confirmed by our internal survey: vaccinated workers showed less tendency to stay at home during influenza-like illness episodes and their relapses.
The economic advantage of extending public influenza vaccination to healthy adult workers is still uncertain and mainly relates to the indirect costs of productivity losses, making the extension strategy more a labour than a health issue.
为了探讨在欧盟国家，将流感疫苗接种范围扩大到健康工作者是否具有成本效益，特别是从角度。
首先，我们回顾了最近关于在高度发达的国家将疫苗接种范围扩大到 50-64 岁人群的国际文献。其次，我们估计了流感疫苗接种对意大利健康成年劳动人口的广泛经济影响。最后，我们进行了一项试点观察性研究，以评估我们组织员工流感疫苗接种对医疗保健和劳动力的影响。
所审查的研究方法上的弱点，都建立在模型的基础上，削弱了其乐观结果的可信度。模型设计越谨慎，最终结果就越不利，正如我们对意大利情况的保守分析所证实的那样。唯一的共同结果是潜在疫苗接种效益与工作缺勤的间接成本之间存在稳定的关系。这一“基于模型的证据”得到了我们内部调查的证实：接种疫苗的工人在流感样疾病发作期间和康复期间呆在家里的倾向较小。
将公共流感疫苗接种范围扩大到健康成年劳动者的经济效益仍不确定，主要与生产力损失的间接成本有关，这使得扩大接种策略更多地成为劳动力问题而不是健康问题。
