Background: All European countries have national immunization programs (NIPs) to protect gainst infectious diseases. We aimed to estimate the individual lifetime cost of vaccination in 23 European countries, assuming full compliance with NIP schedules.
Research design and methods: We used publicly available data to estimate the individual lifetime cost of vaccination with the vaccines that are currently recommended and funded in each country for healthy individuals and for individuals with underlying medical conditions. We included a scenario analysis for healthy individuals in which all currently recommended vaccines were universally funded, and compared the annual costs per person of vaccination to the annual per-capita costs of all-cause hospitalization and anti-infective medications.
Results: The individual lifetime cost of vaccination was €592-3,504 for healthy individuals (median: €1,663; 13-20 diseases), €744-9,081 for individuals with underlying conditions (median: €2,992; 13-21 diseases), and €1,225-4,832 (median: €2,565; 21-22 diseases) in the scenario analysis, with median values for vaccine acquisition of €1,203, €1,731, and €1,788, respectively.
Conclusions: Our estimates show that the maximum potential cost of vaccination requires a relatively low level of investment assuming full compliance. These data could be useful for policymakers in future financial planning and evaluation of NIPs.
Keywords: Europe; health expenditures; lifetime individual cost of vaccination; national immunization programs; vaccination.