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Modeling and Cost-Effectiveness in HIV Prevention

  • The Science of Prevention (JD Stekler and J Baeten, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

With HIV funding plateauing and the number of people living with HIV increasing due to the rollout of life-saving antiretroviral therapy, policy makers are faced with increasingly tighter budgets to manage the ongoing HIV epidemic. Cost-effectiveness and modeling analyses can help determine which HIV interventions may be of best value. Incidence remains remarkably high in certain populations and countries, making prevention key to controlling the spread of HIV. This paper briefly reviews concepts in modeling and cost-effectiveness methodology and then examines results of recently published cost-effectiveness analyses on the following HIV prevention strategies: condoms and circumcision, behavioral- or community-based interventions, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, HIV testing, pre-exposure prophylaxis, and treatment as prevention. We find that the majority of published studies demonstrate cost-effectiveness; however, not all interventions are affordable. We urge continued research on combination strategies and methodologies that take into account willingness to pay and budgetary impact.

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Amy Zheng for her technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Practice Evaluation Center (RPW, MMJ), Divisions of Infectious Diseases and General Internal Medicine (RPW), Massachusetts General Hospital, 50 Staniford Street, 9th Floor, Boston, MA, 02114, USA

    Margo M. Jacobsen & Rochelle P. Walensky

  2. Division of Infectious Diseases, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (RPW), Boston, MA, USA

    Rochelle P. Walensky

  3. Harvard University Center for AIDS Research (RPW), Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Rochelle P. Walensky

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  1. Margo M. Jacobsen
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Correspondence to Rochelle P. Walensky.

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Margo M. Jacobsen declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Rochelle P. Walensky reports grants from the National Institutes of Health and personal fees from LeClair Ryan.

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Jacobsen, M.M., Walensky, R.P. Modeling and Cost-Effectiveness in HIV Prevention. Curr HIV/AIDS Rep 13, 64–75 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11904-016-0303-2

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