The cost-effectiveness of testing for Group B Streptococcus in pregnancy based on a cluster randomised trial (GBS3)
Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is a bacterium present in the vagina and lower gut of approximately one in four pregnant women. GBS can come and go throughout pregnancy and is usually symptomless, but may be passed to the baby around birth. Approximately one baby in every 1750 will develop a GBS infection within seven days of birth. Most will recover, but each year in the UK about 40 babies die and one in 14 of the survivors will have a long-term disability.
The objective of this study is to assess the cost-effectiveness of routine testing of women for GBS colonisation either in late pregnancy or during labour, compared to the current risk factor based strategy.
The economic evaluation, which takes the form of an economic modelling study, is being conducted as part of a multi-centre prospective two-group parallel cluster randomised controlled superiority trial with internal pilot (GBS3). Up to 320,000 women will be recruited from 80 maternity units (obstetric unit or alongside maternity unit) in England, Scotland and Wales.
A decision-analytic model will be constructed that will allow us to extrapolate the cost-effectiveness of alternative testing strategies for GBS colonisation and the usual risk factor approach in pregnancy beyond the parameters of the GBS3 trial.
Oxford project leads:
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Stavros Petrou
Academic Research Lead in Health Economics
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Felix Achana
Senior Researcher in Health Economics
Collaborators:
Jane Daniels, University of Nottingham
Kate Walker, University of Nottingham
Dates:
April 2020 – December 2024
Funder:
National Institute for Health Research (Health Technology Assessment Programme)
Our team
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Stavros Petrou
Academic Research Lead in Health Economics
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Lucy Abel
Health Economist, DPhil student
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Felix Achana
Senior Researcher in Health Economics
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Laura Armitage
Wellcome Trust Doctoral Research Fellow
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Corneliu Bolbocean
Senior Researcher in Health Economics
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Laia Bosque Mercader
Research Fellow in Health Economics
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Lin Bowker-Lonnecker
DPhil Student
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John Buckell
Researcher
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Padraig Dixon
Senior Researcher in Health Economics
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Patrick Fahr
Quantitative Researcher
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Carmen Fierro Martinez
NIHR Pre-Doctoral Fellow
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Nadeem Hussein
NIHR Pre-Doctoral Fellow
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Joseph Kwon
Researcher in Health Economics
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Sungwook Kim
Senior researcher in Health Economics
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Joan Madia
Researcher in Health Economics
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Joaquim Vidiella Martin
Researcher in Economics
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Catia Nicodemo
Senior Research Fellow in Health Economics
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Olu Onyimadu
Health Economist, DPhil Candidate
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May Png
Senior Researcher in Health Economics
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Stuart Redding
Project Lead, Centre for Health Service Economics & Organisation
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Elizabeth-Ann Schroeder
Senior Researcher in Health Economics
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Apostolos Tsiachristas
Associate Professor
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Raphael Wittenberg
Deputy Director, Centre for Health Service Economics and Organisation
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Yaling Yang
Senior Researcher in Health Economics