While we found relatively good st and ards of reporting the study ’s question , population , interventions , comparators and conclusions , the overall reporting was poor , and evidence of unfamiliarity with international guidelines was evident ( i.e. absence of incremental analysis , of discounting long-term costs and effects ) .
Analysis or description of place-to-place variability was infrequent .
Use and acceptance of health economic evaluations ( HEEs ) has been much greater in developed than in developing nations .
Nevertheless , while developing countries lag behind in the development of HEE methods , they could benefit from the progress made in other countries and concentrate on ways in which existing methods can be used or would need to be modified to fulfill their specific needs .
HEEs , as context -specific tools , are not easily generalizable from setting to setting .
Existing studies regarding generalizability and transferability of HEEs have primarily been conducted in developed countries .
Therefore , a legitimate question for policy makers in Latin America and the Caribbean region ( LAC ) is to what extent HEEs conducted in industrialized economies and in LAC are generalizable to LAC ( trans-regional ) and to other LAC countries ( intra-regional ) , respectively .
Economic impact of providing workplace influenza vaccination. A model and case study application at a Brazilian pharma-chemical company.
OBJECTIVE To develop and apply a model to assess the economic value of a  workplace influenza programme  from the perspective of the employer . DESIGN The model calculated the avoided costs of influenza , including treatment costs , lost productivity , lost worker added value and the cost of replacing workers . Subtracted from this benefit were the costs associated with a  vaccination programme , including administrative costs , the time to give the vaccine , and lost productivity due to adverse reactions . The framework of the model can be applied to any company to estimate the cost-benefit of an influenza immunisation programme . SETTING The model developed was applied to 4030 workers in the core divisions of a Brazilian pharma-chemical company . RESULTS The model determined a net benefit of $ US121,441 [ 129,335 Brazilian reals ( $ Brz ) ] , or $ US35.45 ( $ Brz37.75 ) per vaccinated employee ( 1997 values ) . The cost-benefit ratio was 1:2.47 . The calculations were subjected to a battery of 1-way and 2-way sensitivity analyses that determined that net benefit would be retained as long as the vaccine cost remained below $ US45.40 ( $ Brz48.40 ) or the vaccine was at least 32.5 % effective . Other alterations would retain a net benefit as well , including several combinations of incidence rate and vaccine effectiveness . CONCLUSIONS The analysis suggests that providing an influenza vaccination programme can incur a substantial net benefit for an employer , although the size of the benefit will depend upon who normally absorbs the costs of treating influenza and compensating workers for lost work time due to illness , as well as the type of company in which the immunisation programme is applied
While we found relatively good st and ards of reporting the study ’s question , population , interventions , comparators and conclusions , the overall reporting was poor , and evidence of unfamiliarity with international guidelines was evident ( i.e. absence of incremental analysis , of discounting long-term costs and effects ) .
Analysis or description of place-to-place variability was infrequent .
Use and acceptance of health economic evaluations ( HEEs ) has been much greater in developed than in developing nations .
Nevertheless , while developing countries lag behind in the development of HEE methods , they could benefit from the progress made in other countries and concentrate on ways in which existing methods can be used or would need to be modified to fulfill their specific needs .
HEEs , as context -specific tools , are not easily generalizable from setting to setting .
Existing studies regarding generalizability and transferability of HEEs have primarily been conducted in developed countries .
Therefore , a legitimate question for policy makers in Latin America and the Caribbean region ( LAC ) is to what extent HEEs conducted in industrialized economies and in LAC are generalizable to LAC ( trans-regional ) and to other LAC countries ( intra-regional ) , respectively .