Estimated costs and quality-adjusted life-years lost due to N. gonorrhoeae infections acquired in 2015 in the United States: A modelling study of overall burden and disparities by age, race/ethnicity, and other factors

BACKGROUND: Disparities in the health and economic burden of gonorrhoea have not been systematically quantified. We estimated population-level health losses and costs associated with gonococcal infection and sequelae in the United States. METHODS: We used probability-tree models to capture gonorrhoea sequelae and to estimate attributable disease burden in terms of the discounted lifetime costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) lost due to incident infections acquired during 2015 from the healthcare system perspective. Numbers of infections in 2015 were obtained from a published gonorrhoea transmission model. We evaluated population-level disease burden, disaggregated by sex, age, race/ethnicity, and for men who have sex with men (MSM). We conducted a multivariate sensitivity analysis for key parameters. FINDINGS: Discounted lifetime QALYs lost per incident gonococcal infection were estimated as 0.093 (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 0.022-0.22) for women, 0.0020 (0.0015-0.0024) for heterosexual men, and 0.0015 (0.00070-0.0021) for MSM. Discounted lifetime costs per incident infection were USD 261 (109-480), 169 (88-263), and 133 (50-239), respectively. At the population level, total discounted lifetime QALYs lost due to infections acquired during 2015 were 53,293 (12,326-125,366) for women, 621 (430-872) for heterosexual men, and 1,078 (427-1,870) for MSM. Total discounted lifetime costs were USD 150 million (64-277 million), 54 million (25-92 million), and 97 million (34-197 million), respectively. The highest total burden of both QALYs and costs at the population-level was observed in Non-Hispanic Black women, and highest burden per 1,000 person-years was identified in MSM among men and American Indian/Alaska Native among women. INTERPRETATION: Gonorrhoea causes substantial health losses and costs in the United States. These results can inform planning and prioritization of prevention services. FUNDING: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Charles A. King Trust.