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HEALTH education programmes can be applied to numerous groups within a nation's population but they can only be effective if based on knowledge of the sociological structure of the audiences and of the individuals within the groups.The correct assessment and appreciation of the audience aspect is fundamental in making decisions on planning, methods, communications and content of programmes.Planning for health education therefore pre-supposes familiarity with the structure of social class. In Great Britain the population is divided by the Registrar General into five social classes: Class I-Higher professional, etc., Class II-Intermediate, Class III-Skilled, Class IV -Partly skilled, Class V-Unskilled.In discussing community characteristics and attitudes in relation to health education Dalzell-Ward defined a community as an &dquo;aggregate of individuals, between whom is an interdependent relationship that forms the basis of a way of life. Some kind of co-operation exists, but in industrial societies this is largely on a commercial basis. The community has a well-marked pattern in its way of life whereby it can be stratified, and there is evidence that behaviour and attitudes to health can be explained by this stratification&dquo;.1 A programme is based on the health needs of the group for which it is planned and relates to age and sex, taking into account habits, attitudes, beliefs, customs, traditions, education, environment, economic circumstances and resistance factors. It is the inter-relationship of all these elements which create the audience for health education. * The first of a series of four articles by Mr. William Frame; other aspects of health education to be covered in forthcoming issues will be concerned with content, communication, and planning and evaluation.

The University Safety Officer takes pains to bring hazards of this kind to the notice of students newly arriving at the University. A safety handbook is published and made available to students, drawing attention to the special hazards of laboratories, in pipetting harmful substances into the mouth, in breaking glass tubing, and so on.The University Lodgings Office also publishes a booklet with similar references to health and safety hazards in lodgings.Health education in the university-community Those who are engaged in Health Education must often be aware that it is a slow and laborious process. Not all of those who are interested in education are interested in education for health. I remember in my early days at Leeds saying, somewhat naively, to a senior officer of the University that I thought that an intelligent student might reasonably expect at the end of a University course to have had the opportunity to become tolerably well-informed in matters of personal and community health -and I remember my surprise when he replied in one word -'Why?' But I have persisted in my hope that, even if students need to do a large share of educating themselves while they are at University, they will include in the books they read during their course at least one good text on Healthy Living. I have referred earlier to the absence of a programme of formal health education in the University as a whole, and to the attempts that are made by the University doctors to make use of individual consultation as opportunities for a continuing process of health education.Perhaps we should not regard that as sufficient and I suggest, in future discussion, thought should be given to both the planning and the putting into operation of programmes of health education in our institutions of further education.

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