Análise de custo-efetividade do teste treponêmico na prevenção da transmissão vertical da sífilis congênita no recém-nascido: revisão de escopo

Abstract

Objective: To map studies in the literature that analyze the cost and effectiveness of treponemal tests in preventing vertical transmission of congenital syphilis in newborns. Methods: This is a Scoping Review, with a research protocol registered in the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/qf3kz/), conducted according to the guidelines of the JBI Institute Reviewer’s Manual for Scoping Reviews, based on the theoretical framework of Arksey and O'Malley and the PRISMA recommendations. The article search was conducted in May 2024 across 13 electronic databases: Web of Science, Lilacs, Scielo, Scopus, Embase, Cochrane Library, Science Direct, the Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations, the CAPES Theses and Dissertations Portal, Google Scholar, Virtual Health Library, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, and TROVE. Inclusion criteria encompassed publications addressing the study's objective and research question, available in full text, in electronic format, in Portuguese, Spanish, or English. Results: After analyzing 7.098 articles from national and international databases and gray literature, only 4 studies met the eligibility criteria for the final sample. These studies had full texts available free of charge, addressed the proposed topic, and were in the eligible languages. Conclusions: Although the research highlights the scarcity of studies on the cost and effectiveness of treponemal tests in preventing congenital syphilis, emphasizing the urgent need for solutions to optimize the diagnosis and treatment of this condition—given its association with high neonatal mortality rates—it was evident that treponemal tests have relatively low costs, reinforcing their economic feasibility, especially compared to non-treponemal tests. This cost-benefit relationship supports the inclusion of treponemal tests as an essential part of screening strategies, particularly in contexts where timely diagnosis is critical.