Over the period of data collection, 94 families were identified as possible participants. Forty-eight interviews were arranged and 45 completed. One participant withdrew consent prior to the interview (she did not believe she had anything to say). Two participants were not at home at the time scheduled for the interview and neither returned follow-up phone calls. Of those not interviewed, 17 fitted categories for which a sufficient number of interviews had been conducted (complete immunisers); 11 were not interviewed due to language difficulties; 12 could not be contacted by the nurses and 6 refused. Interviews were undertaken in 1995-96. For six interviews both mother and father participated in the interviews (three of these were non-immunising families). All interviews were conducted in the participants' homes.