Cost Effectiveness Associated with Helicobacter pylori Screening and Eradication in Patients Taking Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs and/or Aspirin

BACKGROUND/AIMS: This study was performed to investigate the cost effectiveness of Helicobacter pylori screening/eradication in South Korean patients treated with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and/or aspirin. METHODS: A decision Markov model was used to estimate the effectiveness and economic impact of an H. pylori screening/eradication strategy compared to a no-screening strategy among patients who were included in the model at the age of 40 years. Utility weights were applied to four of the health status groups to reflect quality-adjusted life years (QALY). The costs of screening, H. pylori eradication, and managing peptic ulcer and ulcer complications were obtained from South Korea-specific data. RESULTS: The total costs per patient were US $2,454 for the H. pylori screening/eradication and US $3,182 for the no-screening strategy. The QALYs for the two strategies were 16.05 and 15.73, respectively. The results were robust for the analyses of all different cohort groups who entered the model at the age of 30, 50, or 60 years and for NSAIDs-naïve patients. Through the probabilistic sensitivity analysis, the robustness of our study's results was also determined. CONCLUSIONS: The H. pylori screening/eradication strategy was found to be less expensive and more effective compared to the no-screening strategy among South Korean patients taking NSAIDs and/or aspirin.