title: An economic evaluation of a school-based sexually transmitted disease screening program.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A school-based sexually transmitted disease (STD) screening program was implemented in eight New Orleans public high schools to detect chlamydia and gonorrhea.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The goal was to assess the incremental cost-effectiveness of replacing non-school-based screening with the school-based screening program.
  
  
  METHODS
  A decision-analysis model was constructed to compare costs and cases of expected pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) in the school-based screening scenario versus a non-school-based screening scenario. Cost-effectiveness was quantified and measured as cost per case of PID prevented.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Under base-case assumptions, at an intervention cost of $86,449, the school screening program prevented an estimated 38 cases of PID, as well as $119,866 in treatment costs for PID and its sequelae, resulting in savings of $1524 per case of PID prevented. Results remained cost-saving over a reasonable range of model parameter estimates.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The New Orleans school-based chlamydia screening program was cost-effective and cost-saving and could be cost-effective in other settings. School-based screening programs of this type are likely to be a cost-effective use of public funds and can reduce the burden of STDs among adolescents.
authors.affiliation: Division of Adolescent and School Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. lgw0@cdc.gov
authors.forename: Li Yan
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Gale R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Burstein
authors.forename: Deborah A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002690:Chlamydia Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003663:Decision Trees; D005260:Female; D006069:Gonorrhea / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D008145:Louisiana / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000191:economics* / Q000592:standards; D000292:Pelvic Inflammatory Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012572:School Health Services / Q000191:economics*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity