Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jul 20;23(1):1393.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-16244-z.

Is vitamin D supplementation program in Iranian schools effective in reducing adolescent depressive symptoms? Cost effectiveness study

Seyed Vahid Jasemi  1 , Zhale Zandieh  2 , Narges Zandieh  1 , Mohsen Rezaei Hemami  3 , Ali Darvishi  4   5 , Zahra Abdollahi  6 , Ramin Heshmat  7
Affiliations

Is vitamin D supplementation program in Iranian schools effective in reducing adolescent depressive symptoms? Cost effectiveness study

Seyed Vahid Jasemi et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Purpose: We aimed to assess the cost-effectiveness of the vitamin D supplementation program in Iranian adolescents reducing adolescent depressive Symptoms.

Methods: In the current cost-effectiveness analysis, the viewpoint of Iran's Ministry of Health was selected. The target population was 1,519,762 Iranian high school students (733,657 girls and 786,105 boys). The total costs of the vitamin D supplementations program were based on the reports of the Nutrition Improvement Office of Iran's Ministry of Health and were adjusted to 2018. The variable of Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) was considered a suitable variable for estimating the effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation. We chose one year as the time horizon. A decision tree model was constructed in TreeAge Pro. The results of the cost-effectiveness analysis were reported in term of the Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio (ICER).

Results: The results of our study showed that the estimated cost per QALY gained of the vitamin D supplementation program is equal to 1528.6676 $, which indicates that vitamin D supplementation in adolescents(11-18Y) is a cost-effective and a dominant strategy in preventing depression through the cost-saving and QALYs increment compared to the no intervention. Sensitivity analysis showed that the possible variations in vitamin D supplement costs could not alter the results, and vitamin D supplementation may be a predominant and cost-effective strategy to prevent adulthood depression with a 100% probability.

Conclusion: The national program of vitamin D supplementation among Iranian adolescents was a cost-efficient strategy reducing adolescent depressive Symptoms through the cost-saving and QALYs increment compared to the no intervention.

Keywords: Adolescents; Cost-effectiveness Analysis; Depression; Iran; Vitamin D supplementation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Not applicable.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The decision tree model diagram (vitamin D intervention vs. no intervention)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The incremental cost-effectiveness scatter plot (all samples are in the acceptable range)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The Monte Carlo Strategy Selection
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Lopez AD, Mathers CD, Ezzati M, Jamison DT, Murray CJ. Global and regional burden of disease and risk factors, 2001: systematic analysis of population health data. Lancet (London, England) 2006;367(9524):1747–1757. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(06)68770-9. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ustün TB, Ayuso-Mateos JL, Chatterji S, Mathers C, Murray CJ. Global burden of depressive disorders in the year 2000. Br J Psychiatry. 2004;184:386–392. doi: 10.1192/bjp.184.5.386. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Reddy MS. Depression: the disorder and the burden. Indian J Psychol Med. 2010;32(1):1–2. doi: 10.4103/0253-7176.70510. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. WHO. The global burden of disease: 2004 update. World Health Organization; 2008. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/43942.
    1. WHO. Depression. 2020. https://www.whoint/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression. Accessed 2 May 2021.