A systematic review of cost-effectiveness analysis of different screening strategies for familial hypercholesterolemia

Abstract

Aims: Diagnosis rate of familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) remained less than 10 % globally and the economic evaluation results of different FH screening strategies varied. This study aimed to systematically review the methodology and results of cost effectiveness analysis (CEA) of FH screening, which will provide evidence support for health-related decision-making.

Methods: The Medline/PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of science, National Health Service Economic Evaluation Database (NHSEED) and CEA Registry databases were electronically searched to collect full economic evaluation from the establishment of the databases to June 30, 2022. The quality of included studies was evaluated by the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards statement 2022 (CHEERS 2022) checklist.

Results: Among 232 retrieved studies, 18 economic evaluations were included and all of them are from developed countries, with an average quality score of 0.73. The decision tree model and/or Markov model were constructed by thirteen articles (72 %). Twelve studies (67 %) adopted the healthcare perspective and the lifetime horizon to compare the costs and health outcome of different screening strategies. The results of eight studies indicated that cascade screening was a cost-effective strategy compared with no screening, which was more pronounced in younger adults. Universal screening in young adults aged 16 years or 18-40 years (n=3) and in children aged 1-2 years combined with reverse cascade screening (n=3) are both cost-effective. The probability of being cost-effective for cascade screening (n=6) and universal screening (n=1) of young aged 18-40 years were greater than 95 %.

Conclusions: Our review demonstrated the economic advantages of cascade screening, universal screening of young adults, and universal screening of newborns combined with reverse cascade screening. Further health economic evaluation is needed in children and in low- and middle-income countries.

Keywords: CHEERS 2022; Cascade screening; Economic evaluation; Familial hypercholesterolemia; Systematic review; Universal screening.