The cost effectiveness of gonorrhea screening in urban emergency departments.
BACKGROUND
The prevalence of gonorrhea (GC) among adolescent and young women attending some urban emergency departments (EDs) ranges from 1% to 7%, but historically screening has not been logistically practical.


OBJECTIVE
The primary goal of the study was to assess the cost effectiveness of GC screening in women ages 15 to 29, seeking care in urban EDs, using noninvasive or rapid point-of-care tests.


METHODS
We developed a state-transition Markov model to compare the net lifetime health consequences, costs, and cost effectiveness of routine ED care (no screening for women without genitourinary symptoms) to GC screening using 1 of 5 detection methods: Gram-stained smears of endocervical swab specimens, urine-based nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs), NAATs performed on endocervical swabs, rapid immunochromotographic strip test (RIS) performed on clinician-collected vaginal swabs, and RIS on patient-collected vaginal swabs.


RESULTS
Screening women between 15 and 29 years of age using urine-based NAATs prevented 1247 cases of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and saved 177 US dollars per patient compared with no screening. Compared with urine-based NAAT, screening with RIS using clinician-obtained vaginal swabs prevented an additional 220 cases of PID and had an incremental cost effectiveness ratio of 6490 US dollars per quality-adjusted life year (QALY). Results were sensitive to assumptions about loss to follow-up, gonorrhea prevalence, and test costs.


CONCLUSIONS
Screening females aged 15 to 29 for gonorrhea in some urban EDs will prevent substantial reproductive morbidity. Screening with rapid, point-of-care tests is cost effective compared with other well-accepted preventive interventions.
Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Aledort@rand.org
Julia E
JE
Aledort
Edward W
EW
Hook
Milton C
MC
Weinstein
Sue J
SJ
Goldie
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000191:economics*; D005260:Female; D006069:Gonorrhea / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000191:economics* / Q000652:urine; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D008390:Markov Chains; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods; D009344:Neisseria gonorrhoeae / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D021141:Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D004269:DNA, Bacterial