# Impact of including productivity costs in economic analyses of vaccines for C. difficile infections and infant respiratory syncytial virus, in a UK setting

## TL;DR

This study shows that including productivity costs in vaccine cost-effectiveness analyses can significantly impact economic evaluations in the UK.

## Contribution

The study quantifies productivity cost savings for C. difficile and RSV vaccines in the UK context.

## Key findings

- A C. difficile vaccine could save £12.3 per person in productivity costs.
- An RSV vaccine could save £49 per person in productivity costs.
- Including productivity costs improves societal perspective in vaccine cost-effectiveness analyses.

## Abstract

It has been estimated that vaccines can accrue a relatively large part of their value from patient and carer productivity. Yet, productivity value is not commonly or consistently considered in health economic evaluations of vaccines in several high-income countries. To contribute to a better understanding of the potential impact of including productivity value on the expected cost-effectiveness of vaccination, we illustrate the extent to which the incremental costs would change with and without productivity value incorporated.

For two vaccines currently under development, one against Cloistridioides difficile (C. difficile) infection and one against respiratory syncytial disease (RSV), we estimated their incremental costs with and without productivity value included and compared the results.

In this analysis, reflecting a UK context, a C. difficile vaccination programme would prevent £12.3 in productivity costs for every person vaccinated. An RSV vaccination programme would prevent £49 in productivity costs for every vaccinated person.

Considering productivity costs in future cost-effectiveness analyses of vaccines for C. difficile and RSV will contribute to better-informed reimbursement decisions from a societal perspective.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12962-024-00533-4.