The equity impact vaccines may have on averting deaths and medical impoverishment in developing countries

Angela Y. Chang, Carlos Riumallo-Herl, Nicole A. Perales, Samantha Clark, Andrew Clark, Dagna Constenla, Tini Garske, Michael L. Jackson, Kévin Jean, Mark Jit, Edward O. Jones, Xi Li, Chutima Suraratdecha, Olivia Bullock, Hope Johnson, Logan Brenzel, Stéphane Verguet

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

With social policies increasingly directed toward enhancing equity through health programs, it is important that methods for estimating the health and economic benefits of these programs by subpopulation be developed, to assess both equity concerns and the programs' total impact. We estimated the differential health impact (measured as the number of deaths averted) and household economic impact (measured as the number of cases of medical impoverishment averted) of ten antigens and their corresponding vaccines across income quintiles for forty-one low- and middle-income countries. Our analysis indicated that benefits across these vaccines would accrue predominantly in the lowest income quintiles. Policy makers should be informed about the large health and economic distributional impact that vaccines could have, and they should view vaccination policies as potentially important channels for improving health equity. Our results provide insight into the distribution of vaccine-preventable diseases and the health benefits associated with their prevention.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)316-324
Number of pages9
JournalHealth Affairs
Volume37
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1 2018

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health Policy

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