title: The economic evaluation of a health screening program on congenital heart disease for school children in Taichung, Taiwan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was the economic evaluation of screening school children for congenital heart disease (CHD).
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample consisted of all the 45,725 students in grades 1 and 7 from Taichung County, Taiwan. STATISTICA, version 7.1, was used to determine descriptive statistics and Student's t tests on students' height, weight, and body mass index (BMI).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The total cost of CHD screening was NT$4,863,866 (NT$32 = US$1), and the average cost was NT$106.37 per child. The rate of finding new asymptomatic students was 2.9174%, and the cost of finding 1 asymptomatic student was NT$3646. Also, a cost-effective analysis showed NT$165.7 per year of life saved.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Twelve Student's t tests were conducted, and it found that students' height, weight, and BMI was not associated with asymptomatic students. A goodness-of-fit chi(2) found that females have a higher rate of asymptomatic CHD.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung City, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Fong-Lin
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jar-Yuan
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Pai
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D018618:Echocardiography, Doppler, Color; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000191:economics*; D017059:Models, Econometric; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D012572:School Health Services / Q000191:economics*; D013624:Taiwan