Healthcare Costs for Pneumococcal Disease in the Era of Infant Immunization With 13-Valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine: A Population-Based Study.

Objectives: Invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) and a variety of clinical syndromes caused by pneumococci, such as acute otitis media (AOM), acute sinusitis (AS), and community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), cause a substantial burden on healthcare systems. Few studies have explored the short-term financial burden of pneumococcal disease after the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) introduction in the infant immunization programs. This population-based study evaluated changes in costs associated with healthcare utilization for pneumococcal disease after the PCV13 introduction in the infant immunization program in British Columbia, Canada.

Methods: Individuals with pneumococcal disease were identified using provincial administrative data for the 2000 to 2018 period. Total direct healthcare costs were determined using case-mix methodology for hospitalization and fee-for-service codes for outpatient visits and medications dispensed. Costs were adjusted to 2018 Canadian dollars. Changes in the annual healthcare costs were evaluated across vaccine eras (pre-PCV13, 2000-2010; PCV13, 2011-2018) using generalized linear models, adjusting for the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine program (2004-2010).

Results: During the 19-year study period, pneumococcal disease resulted in 6.3 million cases among 85 million total patient-years, resulting in total healthcare costs of $7.9 billion. More than 6.2 million cases were treated in outpatient setting, costing $0.65 billion (8% of total costs associated with pneumococcal disease treatment), whereas 370 000 hospitalized cases were 3% of all cases, which accrued $7.25 billion (92% of total costs) in costs. Healthcare costs for all studied infections nearly doubled over the study period from $248 million in 2000 to $476 million in 2018 (P = .003). In contrast, there were large declines in total annual costs in the PCV13 era for IPD (adjusted relative rate (aRR) 0.73; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.56-0.95; P = .032), AOM (aRR 0.70; 95% CI 0.59-0.83; P = .001), and AS (aRR 0.68; 95% CI 0.54-0.85; P = .004) compared with the pre-PCV13 era. Total costs increased marginally in the PCV13 era for all-cause CAP (aRR 1.04; 95% CI 0.94-1.15; P = .484).

Conclusions: This study confirms a temporal association in declining economic burden for IPD, AOM, and AS after the PCV13 introduction. Nevertheless, the total economic burden continues to be high in the PCV13 era, mainly driven by increasing CAP costs.