Health education in rural Alabama

American medicine may be in a stage of transition from a system which emphasizes high technology, complaint-response, therapeutically oriented care, to one which stresses prevention via public and private measures, including health education. The problems of poverty, lack of education, poor health, and inadequate medical personnel in rural America makes health education and preventive measures particularly important for the people residing there, and presents probably the greatest challenge to implementation of effective programs. This paper describes the approach taken in Alabama to deliver a wide variety of health education to people in sparsely populated areas.