Psycho-social effects of home care: results of a randomized controlled trial.

A randomized controlled trial was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of the early transfer of hospital in-patients to home care. This paper reports rates of return to normal role functions in work, leisure and household roles for patients who received any of five surgical procedures. With regard to return to work or leisure tasks, no statistically significant differences were observed between groups for any of the procedures. The rates of return to household activities were greater for home care patients than they were for controls in the cases of cholecystectomy and procedures for anal and rectal fistula.