OBJECTIVES

: Communicable diseases such as hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) as well as HIV is common among people who inject drugs (PWID) since the viruses can be transmitted through sharing of infected injection tools. HCV is the most common virus in this population. In 2015, about 1,000 cases of HCV were reported in Sweden, out of which 67 percent was reported among PWID. One important way to decrease the transmission of HCV infections is thus to focus on interventions within this community. One intervention is needle exchange programs (NEP) where PWID, through the health care system, can exchange used syringes to new clean ones in order to eliminate the use, and sharing of potentially infected tools. The aim of this study is to assess the potential cost-effectiveness of NEP in a Swedish context.

METHODS

: The cost-effectiveness of NEP will be studied in a Markov model, where costs and health effects with NEP will be compared to a situation without NEP. We intend to study the effect on HBV, HCV and HIV. Statistical methods will be used to calculate transmission rates based on observational data. Data of health status, quality of life and resource use comes from the Stockholm NEP. Costs will be collected from the Swedish cost per patient database and from regional pricelists. Health effects will be measured as QALY, and the results will be presented as an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER).

RESULTS

: Results suggests that NEP is cost-effective since it leads to a decreased spread of these infectious diseases, which further leads to decreased demand of costly health care.

CONCLUSIONS

: There is currently no Swedish studies concerning the cost-effectiveness of NEP. This study contributes to increased knowledge of how NEP could be implemented to reallocate resources within the health care sector.