{"doi":"10.3389/fpubh.2023.1280412","title":"Assessing the cost-effectiveness of annual COVID-19 booster vaccination in South Korea using a transmission dynamic model","abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction</jats:title><jats:p>We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of South Korea’s planned annual coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) booster campaign scheduled for October 2023.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Materials and methods</jats:title><jats:p>An age-structured mathematical model was used to analyze the public impacts and cost-effectiveness of vaccination across three vaccination strategies: uniform allocation and prioritizing those over 65 or those over 50 years old. We calculated the incremental cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) from both healthcare and societal perspectives. The maximum vaccine cost for cost-effectiveness was also identified.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>Our analysis highlights the cost-effectiveness of South Korea’s annual COVID-19 vaccination program in mitigating health and economic impacts. The most cost-effective strategy is uniform vaccine allocation, offering the lowest incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) at US$ 25,787/QALY. However, with a relatively high attack rate, the strategy prioritizing individuals over 65 years emerges as more cost-effective, lowering the ICER to US$ 13,785/QALY. Prioritizing those over 50 was less cost-effective. All strategies were cost-saving from a societal perspective, with cost-effectiveness being more sensitive to vaccine price than to its effectiveness.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Discussion</jats:title><jats:p>Our results imply a potential strategy shift in current vaccination plan, with uniform vaccine distribution being more cost-effective than prioritizing older adults. Early estimation of viral transmissibility and vaccine effectiveness is crucial in determining the most cost-effective vaccine allocation approach.</jats:p></jats:sec>","journal":"Frontiers in Public Health","year":2023,"id":599989,"datarank":0.3596842909197557,"base_score":2.3978952727983707,"endowment":2.3978952727983707,"self_citation_contribution":0.3596842909197557,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.3596842909197557,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":10,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":556263,"name":"Eunha Shim","orcid":"0000-0003-3135-6360","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":556264,"name":"Wongyeong Choi","orcid":"0000-0002-1463-1597","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Assessing the cost-effectiveness of annual COVID-19 booster vaccination in South Korea using a transmission dynamic model","abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction</jats:title><jats:p>We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of South Korea’s planned annual coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) booster campaign scheduled for October 2023.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Materials and methods</jats:title><jats:p>An age-structured mathematical model was used to analyze the public impacts and cost-effectiveness of vaccination across three vaccination strategies: uniform allocation and prioritizing those over 65 or those over 50 years old. We calculated the incremental cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) from both healthcare and societal perspectives. The maximum vaccine cost for cost-effectiveness was also identified.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>Our analysis highlights the cost-effectiveness of South Korea’s annual COVID-19 vaccination program in mitigating health and economic impacts. The most cost-effective strategy is uniform vaccine allocation, offering the lowest incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) at US$ 25,787/QALY. However, with a relatively high attack rate, the strategy prioritizing individuals over 65 years emerges as more cost-effective, lowering the ICER to US$ 13,785/QALY. Prioritizing those over 50 was less cost-effective. All strategies were cost-saving from a societal perspective, with cost-effectiveness being more sensitive to vaccine price than to its effectiveness.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Discussion</jats:title><jats:p>Our results imply a potential strategy shift in current vaccination plan, with uniform vaccine distribution being more cost-effective than prioritizing older adults. Early estimation of viral transmissibility and vaccine effectiveness is crucial in determining the most cost-effective vaccine allocation approach.</jats:p></jats:sec>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":2.3978952727983707,"endowment":2.3978952727983707,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"38074736","pmcid":"PMC10701673","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W4388942467","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"National Research Foundation of Korea","grant_id":"NRF-2022M3A9I2017587","title":null},{"funder_name":"Ministry of Education","grant_id":"2021R1A6A1A10044154","title":null}],"total_grants":2,"fwci":1.7,"citation_percentile":0.8431987,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2024,"count":1},{"year":2025,"count":5},{"year":2026,"count":4}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1280412/pdf?isPublishedV2=False","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1280412/pdf?isPublishedV2=False","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1280412/full","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1280412","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38074736","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/10701673","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://doaj.org/article/33f547e56f98417e931a94b3c7d0a3bb","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10701673/pdf/fpubh-11-1280412.pdf","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10701673","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10701673?pdf=render","host_type":"Europe_PMC"}],"fields_of_study":["SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research","Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy","COVID-19 epidemiological studies"],"mesh_terms":["COVID-19","COVID-19 Vaccines","Aged","Cost-Benefit Analysis","Humans","Middle Aged","Vaccination","Republic of Korea"],"keywords":["Cost effectiveness","Vaccination","Booster (rocketry)","Cost-effectiveness analysis","Medicine","Cost–benefit analysis","Health care","Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio","Quality-adjusted life year","Environmental health","Risk analysis (engineering)","Immunology","Economics","Economic growth","Engineering","South Korea","Cost-effectiveness","Mathematical Modeling","Annual Vaccination","Covid-19","Sars-cov-2","Coronavirus Disease","Covid-19 Vaccine"],"sdg_mappings":[],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-29T11:55:43.575748Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}