COST EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS OF VARNISH FLUORIDE THERAPY OF STUDENTS IN URMIA’S PRIMARY SCHOOLS

The high prevalence of oral and dental diseases and its high cost of treatment for
the patient and health system has already become an important health issue that requires special attention
of policymakers and health system administrators. The aim of this study was to determine the cost
effectiveness of varnish fluoride therapy intervention.
Materials & Methods: This descriptive analytic study was conducted to compare the cost effectiveness
of two strategies of varnish fluoride therapy and doing nothing in primary schools in Urmia and from the
service provider perspective. The research population was the total number of primary school children
aged 7-12 years in Urmia. After collecting the required information, data analysis was done by decision
tree model and TreeAge pro 2011 software. The incremental cost effectiveness cost ratio (ICER) was
calculated and analyzed after determining the expected costs and effectiveness. Finally, sensitivity
analysis was performed to evaluate the power of the results by plotting the Tornado diagram.
Results: The incremental cost effectiveness ratio was 12039637 Rials per QALY, varnish fluoride
therapy intervention is cost effective based on the threshold defined by the WHO in this study. This
means that varnish fluoride therapy can save 12039637 Rials per QALI. Also, in this study, the results
were not sensitive to the chosen parameters based on results of one-sided sensitivity analysis.
Conclusion: This study suggested the implementation of the varnish fluoride therapy intervention
because of reduced caries and increased quality of life for individuals, as well as household savings in
long run than not doing any intervention. The results of this study can also be helpful in resource
allocation to prevent oral and dental illness