Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of School Nurse Delivered Interventions to Reduce Student Anxiety: Evidence from the CALM Study.

Abstract

Childhood anxiety imposes substantial economic burdens on families, schools, and medical services. Interventions to reduce anxiety may be economically valuable, particularly if they can be delivered at low cost. This study examined the cost-effectiveness of two school nurse-delivered anxiety interventions for elementary school children: CALM (Child Anxiety Learning Modules, cognitive behavioral skills) and CALM-R (relaxation skills). In this pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) 30 school nurses delivered CALM or CALM-R to 54 children with elevated anxiety. CALM and CALM-R demonstrated intervention affordability, with nurse training and nurse delivery costs at $560 and $630 respectively per child. At baseline, we found significant economic resources used by school systems, families, and health systems to support students with anxiety ($3,660-$5,350 per child). At three-month follow-up, total resource use- including intervention costs and all other services -- was lower for children in CALM but higher for CALM-R. For CALM, the implementation cost was more than offset by subsequent resource savings. Moreover, at three month follow up, responder status per child was higher for CALM (60%) than for CALM-R (35%). Thus, CALM students required fewer resources and experienced greater clinical benefits than students in CALM-R. Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Analysis showed that CALM was more cost-effective than CALM-R: the cost per incremental responder student was $6,291 lower. CALM has a high probability of acceptance across all positive values of willingness to pay for anxiety reduction. Evidence from this study indicates that cognitive behavioral skills delivered by school nurses may offer a cost-effective response to childhood anxiety.