Abstract
To investigate the cost-effectiveness of different screening intervals for diabetic retinopathy (DR) in Chinese patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Chinese healthcare system.Chinese general clinical setting. A cost-effectiveness model was developed to simulate the disease course of Chinese population with newly diagnosed with diabetes. Different DR screening programs were modeled to project economic outcomes. To develop the economic model, we calibrated the progression rates of DR that fit Chinese epidemiologic data derived from the published literature. Costs were estimated from the perspective of the Chinese healthcare system, and the analysis was run over a lifetime horizon. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed. Total costs, vision outcomes, costs per quality-adjusted life year (QALY), the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of screening strategies compared to no screening. DR screening is effective in Chinese patients with newly diagnosed T2DM, and screen strategies with ≥4-year intervals were cost-effective (ICER <$7,485 per QALY) compared to no screening. Screening every 4 years produced the greatest increase in QALYs (11.066) among the cost-effective strategies. The screening intervals could be varied dramatically by age at T2DM diagnosis. Probabilistic sensitivity analyses demonstrated the consistency and robustness of the cost-effectiveness of the 4-year interval screening strategy. The findings suggest that a 4-year interval screening strategy is likely to be more cost-effective than screening every 1 to 3 years in comparison with no screening in the Chinese setting. The screening intervals might be tailored according to the age at T2DM diagnosis.