This paper presents a review of the literature on health education experiences in services as well as a documental analysis of this theme. Discussion is based on popular health education and its potential contribution to comprehensive primary health care. The way in which health education is promoted in health services and the difficulties encountered in fulfilling its role of contributing towards the construction of comprehensive primary health care is of central concern. Health actions are understood as educational actions. Thus, the health team and the patients learn and teach, in a dialogical construction of knowledge. Individual care is also discussed in this paper, insofar as the health professional's posture in relation to popular knowledge concerning health care and his respect for the patient's attempt to find the best therapeutic is at issue. As a result of the review of the literature, a systematic compilation of health educational programs and activities, which may be integrated into a program of popular health education for the municipalities, is proposed.
Health education; primary health care; health system; health services; health education