Pharmacoeconomic studies of vaccination in Southeast Asian countries: A systematic review

This review aimed to explore the research situation in Southeast Asian countries on the pharmacoeconomic studies of vaccination. A systematic literature search was conducted in July 2013 using the Medline electronic database with the PubMed interface. The methodological quality of the study was assessed against the CHEC criteria list for good reporting of economic evaluation and WHO recommendation for appraising of economic evaluation of vaccination program. Thirty two eligible articles were retrieved and reviewed. Most of articles met the selected recommendations for good reporting of economic evaluation of vaccination program. Published pharmacoeconomic studies of vaccination in Southeast Asian countries appeared since the year 2001; the number of articles tended to increase over the time. The studies had been conducted in seven of eleven countries in the region; Thailand had the greatest number of publications (11). Most of studies dealt with rotavirus vaccination (7), and followed by HPV vaccination (6) and Hib vaccination (4); in accordance with the concerning issues in the region. The contribution of the researchers from local settings appears significant. There is considerable number of pharmacoeconomic studies of vaccination program conducted in Southeast Asian countries indicating such economic information is gaining importance in policy decision making. More pharmacoeconomic studies need to be conducted in the absence of some evidences from the available studies to complete the evidence for considerations of policy decision making. Copyright © 2016, Global Research Online. All rights reserved.