The Effect of Laughter Yoga on the Quality of Life of Elderly Nursing Home Residents

Background: Old age is associated with the physical and psychological problems that affect the Quality of Life (QoL). Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effect of laughter therapy on the QoL of elderly people in nursing homes. Materials & Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study with‌ pretest-posttest along with control and experimental group and one-month follow-up conducted in 2017. The statistical population consisted of 44 elderly people in the Mehr Aein nursing home in Astaneh Ashrafieh City, Iran. Based on the inclusion criteria, 32 old people were selected and randomly assigned to experimental ‌(n=16) and control‌ (n=16) groups. The experimental group received an interventional program consisting of Madan Kataria's laughter therapy, showing comic films, and reading comic books for one month, over 12 sessions of 100 minutes. After the end of laughter interventions, the elderly of both groups responded to “the lipid quality of life questionnaire”. The obtained data were analyzed using covariance analysis of repeated measures. Results: There was a significant difference between the two groups with regard to their QoL‌ (P<0.01). That is, the adjusted mean of the experimental group in the QoL was significantly higher than the mean of the control group‌ (P<0.01). Also, in the experimental group, the mean follow-up score was higher than the mean score of the pretest, which indicates the stability of the intervention effects after one month‌ (P<0.01). Conclusion: Laughter therapy intervention has a positive effect on improving the QoL of the elderly. Therefore, it is necessary that authorities consider this program at nursing home centers as a complementary method besides the existing treatments for reducing the mental health problems and improving the QoL of the elderly.