KEYWORDS:
immunization registry, compliance, internet, patient education

BACKGROUND:
Leap of Faith Technologies received a Grant (HD36123-03) from NIH/NICHD to test the use of the Internet as an intervention for promoting childhood immunization compliance. The resulting application, called immun.com, has been validated in a randomized trial among parents. Parents who use immun.com report more favorable attitudes, greater intentions, and fewer barriers to immunization.

OBJECTIVE:
Our objective is to expand immunization education and mobilization efforts by developing an Internet application that meets parents' needs for information and resources, and providers' needs for management and reporitng cabability.

METHOD:
1. Refine and enhance the Phase I application, adding administrative tools for providers.
2. Assess acceptability by parents and providers.
3. Assess user characteristics.
4. Evaluate changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions following program use.
5. Explore user characteristics associated with changes.

RESULT:
Phase I showed that parents reported more favorable attitudes, greater intentions, and fewer barriers to immunization at post-test than at baseline:
- 99% could find and understand the information they needed
- 96.7% would be likely to use immun.com from home or another location
- 46.8% would be likely to spend more than ten minutes using the Website

CONCLUSION:
Subjective norms and attitudes are significant predictors of intention to immunize. Parents who see immunization as a good use of time, necessary, helpful, and efficient are more likely to have their child completely immunized.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
We are recruiting 500 parents with one or more children ages 0 to 6 to participate in Phase II. We will examine changes in knowledge, attitudes, and intentions, perceived vulnerability, benefits, and parental locus of control. Quantitative results from our Phase II analysis will be presented.