Cost-effectiveness of Syphilis Screening in Pregnant Women: A Literature System Review

Abstract The cost-effectiveness study of syphilis screening in pregnant women has not been synthesized. The aim of this study is to synthesizes the economic evidence of the cost-effectiveness of syphilis screening in pregnant women which might contribute to make recommendations on future direction of syphilis screening approaches. We systematically search Medline, PubMed and Web of Science for relevant studies published before May 19th 2022 and identified cost-effectiveness analysis for syphilis screening in pregnant women. The methodological design quality was appraised by Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) 2022 checklist. Seventeen literature met the eligibility criteria for full review. Of the seventeen studies, four studies evaluated interventions using different screening methods, seven studies assessed the combination of syphilis test and treatment interventions, three studies focused on repeat screening intervention and four studies evaluated the intervention integrated syphilis and HIV test. The most cost-effective strategy appeared to be rapid syphilis tests with high treatment rate of the positive pregnant women. The cost-effectiveness of syphilis screening in pregnancy has been widely demonstrated. It is more important to improve the compliance of maternal screening and the treatment rate of positive pregnant women while implementing screening.