However, more medical practitioners were necessary, and the state turned to both rural residents and urban ones. These barefoot doctors were usually chosen by members of the commune where the barefoot doctor would then serve. Often "young farmers" were selected to train become barefoot doctors. Other barefoot doctors originally worked as folk doctors and retrained to become barefoot doctors after the Cultural Revolution. Some trainees were also recent graduates of middle school. Barefoot doctors were often fairly young, which Fang (2012) attributes to the fact that the state wanted them to be able to support rural healthcare for the foreseeable future. Fang (2012) also describes that physically weak or disabled people often trained to become barefoot doctors, as the job was much less hard on the body than agricultural labor.