OBJECTIVES : The administration levels of many adult vaccines recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) are low particularly in developing nations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, protection against vaccine-preventable disease such as pertussis is important because both the diseases have some common symptoms and pertussis can be misunderstood to be COVID-19, so the patients of pertussis form a special population. The cost-effectiveness research literature on adult pertussis vaccinations was not synthesized in recent years, which might be due to the vaccine hesitancy among adults and low-level awareness about the importance of adult vaccinations in developing nations, leading to their under-utilization.

METHODS : We assessed research literature from 2000 to 2021, to abridge economic evidence for adult vaccinations recommended by the WHO. The literature search was carried out on PubMed and journal articles on cost-effectiveness analysis and cost utility analysis for pertussis vaccinations were identified. The search was further refined using filters to find out articles related to adults (19+ years age), the resultant publications were reviewed.

RESULTS : The systematic search yielded 119 publications and after applying the filter for adults, 53 publications were included in the final analysis. Among outcomes assessing adult pertussis vaccinations, only 3 of the articles emphasized population from India, Brazil, and Vietnam. Out of those 3 articles only the one based on Brazil was related to adult population while one based on Vietnamese strategies focused on general cost-effectiveness of vaccination, and the one based on India, evaluated the effects, and cost effectiveness of educating mothers regarding childhood pertussis vaccination.

CONCLUSIONS : Most of the published studies report favorable cost-effectiveness profiles for adult vaccinations for developed countries, such as USA, Canada, and Netherlands but not on developing nations and this supports the need for efforts to improve the implementation of adult pertussis vaccination recommendations in developing countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.