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Effect of the Varicella Vaccine

Only limited population-based data describe the effect of varicella vaccination on health status and health care use. A U.S. health insurance database covering about 4 million patients was used to compare varicella-related health care visits and hospitalizations among children and adults from 1994 (before varicella vaccine was approved for use) through 2002.

For all ages, the rate of hospitalization with varicella as the primary diagnosis declined from 2.3 per 100,000 people in 1994–1995 to 0.3 per 100,000 in 2002, including declines from 9.9 to 0.9 among children younger than 10 and from 1.5 to 0.1 among adolescents; all declines were significant. Ambulatory visits dropped for all ages, from 215 to 89 visits per 100,000, with a decline from 956 to 353 per 100,000 among children younger than 10. Total annual U.S. expenditure for varicella-associated ambulatory visits and hospitalizations was estimated to have declined from US$117 million to $27 million.

Comment: These data clearly show that introduction of the varicella vaccine was associated with a dramatic decrease in health care use and health care–related costs. The authors note that their informal economic analysis did not account for many other types of savings, such as reductions in lost income to parents caring for sick children at home.

— Thomas L. Schwenk, MD

Published in Journal Watch General Medicine September 13, 2005

Citation(s):

Zhou F et al. Impact of varicella vaccination on health care utilization. JAMA 2005 Aug 17; 294:797-802.

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