Geriatric day care and homemaker services: an experimental study.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of geriatric day care and homemaker services on patient outcomes. Patients were randomly assigned to receive the experimental services in three study samples. In comparing outcomes between the experimental and control groups, it was found that there were significant differences in physical functioning and activity level for the day care samples, in physical functioning and contentment level for the homemaker study sample, and in all of these outcome measures for the combined services group. Among users of the experimental services, increased use of the services was associated with improved outcomes of care. Multivariate analysis of data showed that factors other than the use of the experimental services were more effective in explaining variation in outcomes. Significant factors that affected all four outcome measures in both the day care and homemaker study were primary diagnosis, impairment prognosis, and number of inpatient hospital days.