Background and Objectives:
Kids Boost Immunity (KBI) is Canadian digital education platform for schools administered by the Public Health Association of British Columbia (PHABC) with an objective to improve vaccine confidence among youth. KBI is the first digital platform in the world to pair vaccine literacy with global citizenship by enabling students to earn polio, tetanus and measles vaccines through a partnership with UNICEF.

Methods:
KBI consists of 350 free online interactive lessons/quizzes in English and French linked to science, health and social studies curricula on a range of topics including germs and infections, vaccines/the immune system and critical thinking. After completing lesson, students use a computer or their own device (e.g. smart phone) to take a quiz that reinforces learning AND earns a vaccine to protect a child somewhere in the world through UNICEF. Learning outcomes are assessed through gamified team/school leaderboards that track student achievement (questions answered/vaccines earned) and amplify student engagement by creating a friendly sense of competition in the classroom.

Results:
Over 30,000 students from 700 schools have answered 4 million quiz questions since 2018, earning 300,000 vaccines in support of UNICEF. Students from many countries including Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, Columbia, Brazil, Lebanon, Malaysia, Thailand, Scotland and Ireland are active users of the platform. Students have consistently demonstrated significant postive changes in knowledge and vaccine confidence based on numerous pre/post measures (process/outcome evaluation).

Conclusion:
KBI represents an innovative new approach to improving vaccine confidence by doing two things at once: connecting interactive learning with global disease prevention. This helps create intergenerational ‘change agents’ by inoculating youth against misinformation while empowering Generation Z to help others (‘kids helping kids’). As KBI continues to expand to more countries, it has the potential to play an important role in helping reduce vaccine hesitancy over the long term.