Health promotion information: sources and significance for those with serious and persistent mental illness.

For 19 sources of health promotion information 41 adult outpatients with severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI) indicated by questionnaire how much information they received from each source and their opinion of its reliability. Nonpsychiatrist physicians, psychiatrists, nurses and pharmacists provided the most health promotion information and were regarded as the most reliable sources. Nurses and pharmacist were seen as providing more, and media and print sources as providing less, information than in similar studies of nonmentally ill samples. Nonpsychiatrist physicians, psychiatrists, nurses and pharmacists are significant sources of health promotion information for persons with SPMI--perhaps even more so than for those with no mental illness. Copyright 2002, Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.