OBJECTIVES: Central precocious puberty (CPP) can lead to short final height in adult-hood and social problems during childhood. Cost of treatment is high and need to be added to the cost and stress associated with the follow-up clinic visits and periodic injections. We aimed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of GnRHa alone versus combined growth hormone (GH) treatment for girls with CPP in a Chinese societal setting.

METHODS：A decision model was constructed to evaluate costs and effectiveness (quality-adjusted life years, QALYs) of two clinical treatment from the third-party payer's perspective. Estimates for probabilistic parameters and QALYs were derived from published studies. Screening and treatment costs were taken from Chinese tertiary hospitals. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) were calculated to compare the treatments. All costs and treatment effects were discounted at 5%. Sensitivity analyses were performed to evaluate the impact of uncertainty in parameter estimation.

RESULTS：The total cost per patient was CNY¥122,919.96 (US$18,978.84) for GnRHa plus GH and CNY¥34,277.12 (US$5292.39) for GnRHa alone. The ICER for GnRHa plus GH was CNY¥9,915,381.32(US$1,530,934.88) /QALY versus GnRHa. The most sensitive parameters in the model were the effective of height gain (final adult height - predictive adult height).

CONCLUSIONS：Our study indicated that GnRH combined GH was not cost-effective versus GnRH in the Chinese population.