Cost Determinants of Routine Infant Immunization Services
2017
The EPIC study collected data on routine infant immunization costs from Benin, Ghana, Honduras, Moldova, Uganda, Zambia, using a standardized approach. The authors estimated how costs were distributed across budget categories and programmatic activities, and investigated how the cost structure of immunization sites varied by country and site characteristics. For each country, the economic costs of infant immunization were estimated by administrative level, budget category, and programmatic activity from a program perspective. Regression models were used to describe how costs within each category were related to site operating characteristics and efficiency level.
Site-level costs (incl. vaccines) represented 77–93% of national routine infant immunization costs. Labor and vaccine costs comprised 14–69% and 13–69% of site-level cost, respectively. The majority of site-level resources were devoted to service provision (facility-based or outreach), comprising 48–78% of site-level costs across the six countries. Based on the regression analyses, sites with the highest service volume had a greater proportion of costs devoted to vaccines, with vaccine costs per dose relatively unaffected by service volume but non-vaccine costs substantially lower with higher service volume. Across all countries, more efficient sites (compared with sites with similar characteristics) had a lower cost share devoted to labor.
Cost Determinants of Routine Infant Immunization Services
Source:
Menzies NA, Suharlim C, Geng F, Ward ZJ, Brenzel L, Resch SC et al. The Cost Determinants of Routine Infant Immunization Services: A Meta-Regression Analysis of Six Country Studies.. BMC Medicine 2017; 15:178. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-017-0942-1