Students attending the main campus of the university were approached to participate in the study. Two methods were used to identify potential participants. Firstly, the interviewer (JP) directly approached a convenience sample of students who were located in the food halls and recreation areas of the university campus and invited them to participate. In the latter half of the study, a snowball approach was used. The snowball approach was adopted due to problems with identifying and recruiting postgraduate students. They constitute a considerably smaller percentage of the total student body, often are enrolled externally and attend classes in the late afternoon/evening. Students were classified on the basis of their enrolment status: undergraduate vs. postgraduate, and domestic vs. international. We aimed to recruit a sample of students from each classification and hence we firstly screened the student to identify their enrolment status. Students enrolled in the bachelor of medicine were excluded as it was assumed they would not be representative of the general student body, and would have had more exposure to issues surrounding disease spread and control. Participation was voluntary and written consent was obtained. During the study period, pandemic influenza H1N1 activity remained low and sporadic cases of pandemic influenza continued to be reported without evidence of sustained community transmission [11] .