BACKGROUND The community health participation is an important issue for all health systems based on a Primary Health Care, which emphasizes prevention and promotion, as a complement to assistance. In this survey, the social attitude towards health participation is studied, taking into account the different research paradigms on Social Sciences, the models of health behaviours, the meaning of participation and the meaning of the own attitudes. METHODS A Likert scale of 18 items, which constitutes a part of a general health survey of 128 variables, is elaborated and validated. It is complemented with a personal interview to 1371 persons in a random sample from four health areas. RESULTS The data obtained show that there are neither statistical significant differences among areas in relation with having or not a Health Council, nor between men and women. The attitudes towards participation are more favourable among young people, bachelors and persons from a high socioeconomic status, hig degree studies, white collar professions, and the persons going to the doctor with the lowest frequency, show a positive tendency. The factorial analysis identifies three dimensions: a) Self-care, b) political and c) community health agent. The discriminant analysis shows that variables (age, civil, status, socioeconomic level, studies...) classify correctly 74% of cases. CONCLUSIONS The personal profile, showing a health participative attitude, is consistent, in most variables, with that published by previous reports.