Incomplete immunisation uptake in infancy: maternal reasons.

We examined uptake of primary immunisations in infancy and the reasons given by mothers for either incompletely or not immunising their infants. We used data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a cohort of 18,819 infants born between September 2000 and January 2002 in the UK. 95.6% infants were reported to be fully immunised, 3.3% partially immunised and 1.1% unimmunised. Mothers most frequently cited medical reasons (45%) for partial immunisation (n=697), but beliefs or attitudes (47%) for no immunisation (n=228). An understanding of maternal reasons for incomplete immunisation status may assist in identifying appropriate interventions to maximise uptake.