Parental awareness was high EDITOR,-We wish to report the results of an observational study that a group of us undertook recently as part of our community medicine attachment. We chose the topic of measles immunisation because it was a current issue.' There had also been public concern that the campaign contained information contradicting that given in the previous measles, mumps, and rubella campaign, launched in October 1988. At that time the parliamentary secretary for health, Mrs Edwina Curry, stated that "It [measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine] provides life-long protection against all three infections with a single jab."2 A third point of interest was the controversy surrounding the rubella component of the vaccine.The aim of our project was to discover whether parents of 4-16 year old children were aware of the current measles immunisation campaign, understood and accepted the information provided, and were prepared to have their children immunised. This was undertaken with a questionnaire administered during an interview.Questionnaires were answered by 190 parents; 185 of the 190 were aware of the current publicity, with 110 of 189 identifying school leaflets as their first source of information. The predicted epidemic was identified as the reason for the campaign by 143 of the 190. Previous immunisation and previous measles infection were recognised as not exempting a child from the campaign by 139 and 129 parents respectively. Altogether 163 of 181 stated that they would allow their children to be immunised, although only 82 of the 190 identified the correct constitutents of the vaccine. Parents aged over 40 were more likely to refuse the vaccine (7/31 (23%) of those over 40 refused v 11/151 (7%) aged 40 and under; P=0 02). There was no variation in uptake between ethnic groups (uptake was 90% (143/159) among white children v 910% (20/22) among non-white children).Awareness of the impending epidemic correlated with uptake (uptake was 94% (128/136) among children whose parents were aware of the epidemic v 78% (35/45) among children whose parents were not; P=0 003). Knowledge about the vaccine's content did not correlate with uptake (uptake was 94% (73/78) among children whose parents correctly identified the vaccine's components v 87% (90/103) among children whose parents responded incorrectly). Knowledge about the irrelevance of previous immunisation and previous measles infection both correlated with uptake (uptake was 97% (131/135) among children whose parents responded correctly v 70% (32/46) among children whose parents responded incorrectly regarding previous immunisation; it was 97% (120/124) among children whose parents responded correctly v 75% (43/57) among children whose parents responded incorrectly regarding previous infection; P < 0-001 for both analyses).We therefore conclude that most parents were aware of the measles immunisation campaign. Most of them understood and accepted the information given to them (except with regard to the vaccine's content). Furthermore, in the light of the g...