Abstract
Background
The recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the management of children aged < 5 years with chest indrawing pneumonia with oral amoxicillin dispersible tablets (DT) at the outpatient health facilities is imperative, especially in a high pneumonia mortality and low-resource setting like Nigeria. However, this recommendation has not been widely adopted in Nigeria due to poor access to healthcare and sub-optimal outpatient management and follow-up system to ensure patients’ safety and management effectiveness. This study aimed to evaluate the cost effectiveness and the cost benefit of the WHO recommendation relative to usual practices in Nigeria. The outcome of this study will provide supporting evidence to healthcare providers and inform their management decisions.
Methods
A cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses of this study used a Markov cohort model from the healthcare provider perspective for a time horizon of five years. Three approaches were compared: a conventional approach (base-comparator); the amoxicillin DT (WHO) approach; and a parenteral approach. Bottom-up costing method was used. Health outcome was expressed as disability-adjusted life years averted and converted to monetary terms (benefit).
Results
The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) and the benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of the amoxicillin DT approach dominate the conventional approach. The parenteral approach was more effective and more beneficial than the amoxicillin DT approach but the ICER and BCR were $75,655/DALY averted and 0.035, respectively.
Conclusions
The use of amoxicillin DT proves to be the optimal choice with high benefit and low cost. The opportunity cost of not adopting an approach more effective than amoxicillin DT will be offset by the cost saved. Its use in chest indrawing pneumonia management needs to be scaled up.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Global Burden of Disease Study 2017 (GBD 2017) Results. Seattle, United States. 2018. http://ghdx.healthdata.org/gbd-results-tool. Accessed 3 Mar 2020.
WHO. Pneumonia: key facts. Geneva. 2019. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/pneumonia. Accessed 27 Feb 2020.
Mcallister DA, Liu L, Shi T, Chu Y, Reed C, Burrows J, et al. Global, regional, and national estimates of pneumonia morbidity and mortality in children younger than 5 years between 2000 and 2015: a systematic analysis. Lancet Glob Health. 2019;7(1):e47–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(18)30408-X.
UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. Nigeria under-five mortality rate. 2018. https://childmortality.org/data/Nigeria. Accessed 13 Mar 2020.
UNICEF. Nigeria contributes highest number to global pneumonia child deaths. 2019. https://www.unicef.org/nigeria/press-releases/nigeria-contributes-highest-number-global-pneumonia-child-deaths. Accessed 12 Mar 2020.
Noordam AC, Carvajal-Velez L, Sharkey AB, Young M, Cals JWL. Care seeking behaviour for children with suspected pneumonia in countries in sub-Saharan Africa with high pneumonia mortality. PLoS ONE. 2015;10(2):1–14. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0117919.
National Bureau of Statistics. Poverty rates. 2019. https://nigerianstat.gov.ng/. Accessed 5 Aug 2020.
WHO. Revised WHO classification and treatment of childhood pneumonia at health facilities: implications for policy and implementation. 2014; pp 1–4. http://apps.who.int//iris/handle/10665/137331. Accessed 28 Feb 2020.
WHO. Revised WHO classification and treatment of childhood pneumonia at health facilities: evidence summaries. World Health Organization. 2014; p 26. https://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/documents/child-pneumonia-treatment/en/. Accessed 10 Feb 2020.
Onyedum CC, Chukwuka JC. Admission profile and management of community acquired pneumonia in Nigeria-5 year experience in a tertiary hospital. Respir Med. 2011;105(2):298–302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmed.2010.11.003.
Iliyasu G, Mohammad FD, Habib AG. Community acquired pneumococcal pneumonia in northwestern Nigeria: epidemiology, antimicrobial resistance and outcome. Afr J Infect Dis. 2018;12(1):15–9.
United Nations. World Population Prospects 2019. 2019. https://population.un.org/wpp/Download/Standard/Population/. Accessed 5 May 2020
Awosusi A, Folaranmi T, Yates R. Nigeria’s new government and public financing for universal health coverage. Lancet Glob Health. 2015;3(9):e514–5. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(15)00088-1.
Olowu A, Elusiyan J, Esangbedo D, Ekure E, Esezobor C, Falade A, et al. Management of community acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children: clinical practice guidelines by the Paediatrics Association of Nigeria (PAN). Niger J Paediatr. 2015;42(4):283–92. https://doi.org/10.4314/njp.v42i4.1.
Hazir T, Fox LM, Bin NY, Fox MP, Ashraf YP, MacLeod WB, et al. Ambulatory short-course high-dose oral amoxicillin for treatment of severe pneumonia in children: a randomised equivalency trial. Lancet. 2008;371(9606):49–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(08)60071-9.
Addo-Yobo E, Chisaka N, Hassan M, Hibberd P, Lozano JM, Jeena P, et al. Oral amoxicillin versus injectable penicillin for severe pneumonia in children aged 3 to 59 months: a randomised multicentre equivalency study. Lancet. 2004;364(9440):1141–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(04)17100-6.
Pitt C, Roberts B, Checchi F. Treating childhood pneumonia in hard-to-reach areas: a model-based comparison of mobile clinics and community-based care. BMC Health Serv Res. 2012;12(1):9.
Dang TT, Eurich DT, Weir DL, Marrie TJ, Majumdar SR. Rates and risk factors for recurrent pneumonia in patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia: population-based prospective cohort study with 5 years of follow-up. Clin Infect Dis. 2014;59(1):74–80.
Haacker M, Hallett TB, Atun R. On discount rates for economic evaluations in global health. Health Policy Plan. 2020;35(1):107–14.
WHO/MSH. International Medical Products Price Guide. 2015. https://www.msh.org/sites/default/files/msh-2015-international-medical-products-price-guide.pdf. Accessed 11 Feb 2020.
National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. National Health Insurance Scheme Drug Price List. 2013. http://www.nigeria-law.org/National.Health.Insurance.Scheme.Decree.htm
WHO. Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY): quantifying the burden of disease from mortality and morbidity. 2012. http://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/metrics_daly/en/. Accessed 1 Aug 2015
WHO. Global Burden of Disease Concept. 2004. http://www.who.int/quantifying_ehimpacts/publications/en/9241546204chap3.pdf. Accessed 1 Aug 2015
Robinson LA, Hammitt JK, O’Keeffe L. Valuing mortality risk reductions in global benefit-cost analysis. J Benefit Cost Anal. 2019;10:15–50. https://doi.org/10.1017/bca.2018.26.
CCEMG and EPPI-Centre. CCEMG—EPPI-Centre cost converter v.1.6. 2019. https://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/costconversion/default.aspx. Accessed 15 Mar 2020
WorldBank. Currency exchange rate. 2019. https://unctadstat.unctad.org/wds/TableViewer/tableView.aspx?ReportId=117. Accessed 14 Apr 2020.
Barendregt JJ. The life table method of half cycle correction: getting it right. Med Decis Mak. 2014;34(3):283–5. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272989X13519863.
Briggs A, Claxton K, Sculpher M. Decision modelling for health economic evaluation. New York: Oxford University Press Inc; 2006.
WorldBank. Gross Domestic Product per Capita. 2019. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=NG
Edejer TT-T, Baltussen R, Adam T, Hutubessy R, Acharya A, Evans DB, et al. WHO CEA guidelines. 2003. https://www.who.int/choice/publications/p_2003_generalised_cea.pdf?ua=1. Accessed 15 Jan 2020.
Malaria Consortium. Community case management of chest indrawing pneumonia in children. 2017. https://www.malariaconsortium.org/what-we-do/projects/76/community-case-management-of-chest-indrawing-pneumonia. Accessed 10 May 2020.
Counihan H, Baba E, Oresanya O, Adesoro O, Hamzat Y, Marks S, et al. One-arm safety intervention study on community case management of chest indrawing pneumonia in children in Nigeria. Glob Health Action. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2020.1775368.
Thambavita D, Galappatthy P, Mannapperuma U, Jayakody L, Cristofoletti R, Abrahamsson B, et al. Biowaiver monograph for immediate-release solid oral dosage forms: amoxicillin trihydrate. J Pharm Sci. 2017;106(10):2930–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xphs.2017.04.068.
Arancibia A, Guttmann J, Gonzalez C. Absorption and disposition kinetics of amoxicillin in normal human subjects. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1980;17(2):199–202.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Funding
The author received no funding for this research.
Conflict of interest
The author declares no competing interest.
Ethics approval
Not applicable.
Consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Availability of data and materials
The model used in this study was provided to the journal’s peer reviewers for their reference when reviewing the manuscript. The data used for the study are provided as supplementary file.
Code availability
Not applicable.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Okafor, C.E. Management of Chest Indrawing Pneumonia in Children Under Five Years at the Outpatient Health Facilities in Nigeria: An Economic Evaluation. Appl Health Econ Health Policy 19, 429–437 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-020-00627-z
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-020-00627-z