ArticleThe International journal on drug policy2021
Cost-effectiveness of mass screening for Hepatitis C virus among all inmates in an Irish prison.
Article in The International journal on drug policy, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pilot postal birth cohort hepatitis C virus screening in UK primary care: HepCAPP study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Article
- Achieving Hepatitis C Micro-Elimination in Chinese Injecting Drug Users: A Dynamic Network Modeling Study.Infectious diseases and therapy · 2025Article
- A scoping review on the community dividend resulting from testing and treating hepatitis C infection in people living in detention.Epidemiology and infection · 2024Article
- Scale-up of Direct-Acting Antiviral Treatment in Prisons Is Both Cost-effective and Key to Hepatitis C Virus Elimination.Open forum infectious diseases · 2024Article
- The Efficacy of On-Site Integration Screening and Microelimination Programs for Chronic Hepatitis C in a Detection Center: A Comparison of the Treatment Outcomes and Characteristics of Incarcerated Patients and Outpatients.International journal of hepatology · 2024Article
- Cost-effectiveness of integrated treatment for hepatitis C virus (HCV) among people who inject drugs in Norway: An economic evaluation of the INTRO-HCV trial.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2023Article
- Implementation of HCV screening in the 1969-1989 birth-cohort undergoing COVID-19 vaccination.Liver international : official journal of the International Association for the Study of the Liver · 2022Article
- Monitoring progress towards elimination of hepatitis B and C in the EU/EEA.PLOS global public health · 2022Article
- Modeling as Visioning: Exploring the Impact of Criminal Justice Reform on Health of Populations with Substance Use Disorders.MDM policy & practiceArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIn Irish prisons, there is a high proportion of people who inject drugs (PWID; 26%) and a high prevalence of HCV (16%), making prison a high priority setting for HCV testing and treatment. We evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a mass HCV screening intervention in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, compared to the standard-of-care of intermittent screening on committal.
methodsPrimary cost data was collected from the intervention using an overall provider perspective. Standard-of-care (SOC) costs were estimated through interview. All costs were inflated to 2020 Euros. An HCV transmission and disease progression model among incarcerated and community PWID and ex-injectors was calibrated to the Dublin HCV epidemic, allowing inclusion of population-level health benefits. The model used intervention data, suggesting 419 individuals were screened, 50 HCV infections diagnosed and 32 individuals initiated treatment, to project the resulting costs and health benefits (quality adjusted life years or QALYs) over 50 years with 5% discounting. The incremental cost effectiveness ratio (ICER), cost per QALY gained, was estimated for the screening intervention compared to the standard-of-care. Probabilistic sensitivity analyses (PSA) determined the probability that the intervention was cost-effective compared to a willingness-to-pay threshold of €30,000/QALY as used in Ireland. The ICER for 1- or 3-yearly mass screening in all Dublin prisons was also calculated.
resultsThe total direct costs of the intervention (not including treatment drug costs) was €82,392, with most costs being due to staff (43%) and overhead or management costs (38%). Despite having little epidemiological impact due to the small numbers treated, over 50 years the incremental cost of the intervention was €36,592 and 3.8 QALYs were gained, giving a mean ICER of €9,552/QALY. The majority (84%) of PSA runs were below the willingness-to-pay threshold. Yearly mass screening had an ICER of €2,729/QALY compared to SOC and gave a higher net monetary benefit (€7,393,382) than screening every 3 years (€6,252,816).
conclusionPrison mass screening could be a cost-effective initiative for increasing testing and treatment of HCV in Ireland.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.