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Affiliation
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Ivey Business School, Western University, London, ON, N6G 0N1, Canada; Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON, N6A 5C1, Canada. |
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Abstract
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BACKGROUND: We seek to identify conditions under which a plan by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) to equip high schools with naloxone kits would be cost-effective.
METHODS: We developed a decision-analytic model to evaluate the costs, benefits, and cost-effectiveness of a school-based naloxone program. We estimated model inputs from the medical literature and used Toronto-specific sources whenever available. We present our results varying both the expected total number of opioid overdoses per year across all 112 TDSB high schools and the effectiveness of a school-based naloxone program in reducing mortality.
RESULTS: A school naloxone program likely costs less than CAD$50,000 per quality-adjusted life-year gained if the overdose frequency is at least once each year and it reduces opioid poisoning mortality by at least 40% (from 10% to <6.0%) or if the overdose frequency is at least two per year and the program reduces mortality by at least 20% (from 10% to <8.0%). The results are sensitive to the intensity and cost of staff training, the lifetime costs and life-expectancy of overdose survivors, and the probability of an overdose being fatal in the absence of a school naloxone program.
CONCLUSIONS: School naloxone programs are relatively inexpensive, but that does not ensure that they are a cost-effective use of resources. While potentially cost-effective, if the risk of an overdose in a Toronto high school is low, then other programs aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of students may be better use of limited resources.
Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Language: en |