The economic evaluation of a health screening program on congenital heart disease for school children in Taichung, Taiwan.
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.
Chen
Fong-Lin
FL
Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung City, Taiwan.
Pai
Jar-Yuan
JY
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