THE IMPACT OF POSTHOSPITAL HOME CARE ON PATIENTS WITH CANCER

Symptom distress, mental health status, enforced social dependency and health perceptions were measured in two groups of cancer patients, on e receiving home care services (n = 49) and the other receiving no suc h services (n = 11). Data were obtained at hospital discharge and 3 mo nths later. Patients receiving home care demonstrated statistically si gnificant improvement on mental health and social dependency; patients not receiving home care did not improve on any variable. After contro lling for baseline scores, the home care group had significantly highe r mental health status at the second interview than the no home care g roup. (C) 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.