Two researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health who did the study took into account the benefit of an intervention such as a vaccine in terms of the person's health and also the cost of the intervention to determine the cost-effectiveness.
The study, published in the Aug. 21 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, concluded that vaccine will be most cost-effective in the U.S. with universal vaccination of 12-year-old girls and catch-up efforts to vaccinate adult women from 13 to 21.
The cost-effectiveness of vaccinating 12-year-old girls was $43,600 per quality-adjusted life-year. This increased to $97,300 when the vaccine was extended to girls up to age 18. Under $50,000 is generally considered cost-effective.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends that 11- and 12-year-old girls be targeted for this vaccine, as most girls of this age are not yet sexually active, have not yet been exposed to HPV, and will therefore achieve maximum protection.
The maker of the Gardasil vaccine, Merck & Co., also wants to market it to women ages 27 to 45, but so far the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has denied that request.
HPV is a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer. Three-quarters of U.S. women will be exposed to HPV at some point in their lifetime and, at any one time, one-quarter have been infected.
