Evaluation and Cost Analysis of National Health Policy of Thalassaemia Screening in West-Azerbaijan Province of Iran

Background: thalassaemia is one of the most commonmendelian disorders in mediterranean area. iran has about 26,000thalassaemic patients, so it is one of the most affected countries.the aim of this study was to evaluate the screening programand cost analysis of thalassaemia prevention program in west-azerbaijan province of iran.methods: this study evaluated the efficacy of health system’sthalassaemia prevention program with a sensitivity analysis forits costs. the second five years of the program was evaluated.the economic burden of thalassaemia is determined by the birthprevalence of the affected infants and the cost that is accrued totreat the infected individuals and was compared with the total costof screening the couples for thalassemia trait.results: the average incidence rate of major thalassaemia was19.8 per 100,000 live births and mean coverage rate of programwas 74%. the rate of canceling the marriage among carriercouples was 53%. cost analysis showed that the cost of screeningand prenatal diagnosis program was much lower than the cost oftreatment in potential thalassaemic patients.conclusions: the prevention program of thalassaemia includinga premarital and pre-natal screening in west azerbaijan provinceis demonstrated to be cost-effective. taking some actions in orderto increase the coverage of pre-marital screening, providing prenataldiagnosis in private and public sector, complete insurancecoverage for the high-risk couples to perform the investigationsmore easily, were recommended.