Comparison of social distribution of immunisation with measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, England, 1991-2001.

Since the late 1990s, the possible adverse effects of the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine have caused intense public debate. After the vaccine was introduced in 1988, coverage was high, increasing from 80% in 1989 to 92% in 1997. After 1997 coverage began to decline, and by 2001 had fallen by 4.1%, which gave some cause for concern. We examined the extent to which these trends reflect different patterns of uptake in affluent and deprived areas and changes in the equitable coverage of immunisation for MMR.