Researchers have studied the cost-benefit ratio of newborn screening (NBS) for SMA, which has been in place in Belgium for the past five years, by comparing children who were treated and monitored over a 30-month period:
- the children could have received treatment either following screening or because they were symptomatic,
- although the costs (direct and indirect) remain fairly comparable in the two populations, the gain in terms of QALYs (quality-adjusted life years) is much better in children treated following screening,
- however, these factors appear to have little influence on decisions as to whether or not to introduce screening at national level.
These studies are of limited scope, as they relate only to a small number of patients diagnosed with SMA (19 out of 250,000 tested).
