Economic Evaluation of vaccination program against covid-19 among children and elderly population in European Countries : A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Background – The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has had a significant global impact, with severe implications for public health and economies worldwide. As the virus spreads and new variants emerge, effective vaccination strategies are crucial in controlling the pandemic and mitigating its burden on healthcare systems. Understanding the cost-effectiveness of different vaccination approaches is essential for decision-makers to allocate limited resources efficiently and prioritize interventions for which a systematic literature review was used. Objectives- In this systematic literature review, we aim to report and synthesize health economic evaluations of vaccination programs against Covid-19 in European countries among children compared with an elderly population. Methods- According to Mandrik et al. (2021), a Systematic Literature Review consists of six stages, (i) planning and development, (ii) evidence search, (iii) study selection, (iv) quality assessment, (v) data extraction, and synthesis, (vi) presenting results. This SLR used CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsychInfo, and EMBASE databases. Use of health-economic databases and grey literature were also used. Results- Through search identification, 6053 articles were found, of which 333 were removed because of duplication. Then after the title and abstract screening, 162 articles were selected for the full-text screening, and the rest were excluded for multiple reasons. No potentially relevant study was included in the final inclusion. Conclusion- We did not find any relevant articles that reported an economic evaluation of covid-19 vaccination program among the children population compared to the elderly population in European countries. More evidence is required for the children population to evaluate the vaccination program economically.