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Objective: To ascertain young people's perceptions of an adolescent health survey when administered by multimedia computer assisted self‐administered Interview (M‐CASI) through analysis of (1) questionnaire item responses and (2) focus group interviews.

Methodology: Setting: Auckland, New Zealand, 1999. Study type: Pilot testing of a 488‐item branching questionnaire delivered using a youth‐oriented and user‐friendly M‐CASI interface in a variety of settings using both desktop and laptop computers. Post pilot focus groups of participants identifying their perceptions and experiences of the survey. Sample: 110 school students aged 12 to 18 years.

Results: The mean number of questions answered by participants was 316 with the median time to completion being 48 minutes. On average 65% of the total number of questions were seen and of these 1.5% were deliberately not answered. A high level of …