evaluation of cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit of newborn screening for phenylketonuria in hamadan, iran

objective: this study assesses the cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit of newborn screening for phenylketonuria in hamadan, iran.

method: all direct costs of screening program for phenylketonuria,costs for recall of suspected patients and cost of diagnostic laboratory exams, treatment andrehabilitation of unscreened mental retard patient were calculated and compared using decision tree model. for evaluation of efficacy, intelligence quotient (iq)of 15 patients who had beenscreened in 2 years ago, was compared with 15 healthy child using "wechsler test". data were analyzedusingspss software.

result: results show that costs of treatment of identified screened patients an unscreened patients was 324152000rls (7718$) 1and 337138000 rls (8027$) respectively. screening program for phenylketonuria lead to saving 12786000 rls(305$) for each patient and is cost benefit. in control group, 60% of persons had highaverage iq and 27% had superior iq. in case group, most of patients (87%) had average iq.

conclusion: newborn screening for phenylketonuriais shown to be cost-effective and cost-benefit. this program not only is cost saving for health system but also is successful to decrease mental retardation development.