TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bota, A Brianne
AU  - Bettinger, Julie A
AU  - Sarfo-Mensah, Shirley
AU  - Lopez, Jimmy
AU  - Smith, David P
AU  - Atkinson, Katherine M
AU  - Bell, Cameron
AU  - Marty, Kim
AU  - Serhan, Mohamed
AU  - Zhu, David T
AU  - McCarthy, Anne E
AU  - Wilson, Kumanan
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/5/8
TI  - Comparing the Use of a Mobile App and a Web-Based Notification Platform for Surveillance of Adverse Events Following Influenza Immunization: Randomized Controlled Trial
JO  - JMIR Public Health Surveill
SP  - e39700
VL  - 9
KW  - active participant–centered reporting
KW  - health technology
KW  - adverse event reporting
KW  - mobile apps
KW  - immunization
KW  - vaccine
KW  - safety
KW  - influenza
KW  - campaign
KW  - apps
KW  - mobile
KW  - surveillance
KW  - pharmacovigilance
AB  - Background: Vaccine safety surveillance is a core component of vaccine pharmacovigilance. In Canada, active, participant-centered vaccine surveillance is available for influenza vaccines and has been used for COVID-19 vaccines. Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of using a mobile app for reporting participant-centered seasonal influenza adverse events following immunization (AEFIs) compared to a web-based notification system. Methods: Participants were randomized to influenza vaccine safety reporting via a mobile app or a web-based notification platform. All participants were invited to complete a user experience survey. Results: Among the 2408 randomized participants, 1319 (54%) completed their safety survey 1 week after vaccination, with a higher completion rate among the web-based notification platform users (767/1196, 64%) than among mobile app users (552/1212, 45%; P<.001). Ease-of-use ratings were high for the web-based notification platform users (99% strongly agree or agree) and 88.8% of them strongly agreed or agreed that the system made reporting AEFIs easier. Web-based notification platform users supported the statement that a web-based notification-only approach would make it easier for public health professionals to detect vaccine safety signals (91.4%, agreed or strongly agreed). Conclusions: Participants in this study were significantly more likely to respond to a web-based safety survey rather than within a mobile app. These results suggest that mobile apps present an additional barrier for use compared to the web-based notification–only approach. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05794113; https://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT05794113 
SN  - 2369-2960
UR  - https://publichealth.jmir.org/2023/1/e39700
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/39700
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37155240
DO  - 10.2196/39700
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/39700
ER  -