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A NEW METHOD FOR THE HEALTH PROMOTION OF OLDER ADULTS WHO LIVE IN INSTITUTION: LAUGHTER TERAPHY View project
All content following this page was uploaded by Nilgün Kuru Alıcı on 05 March 2018.
Aims and objectives. To evaluate the effect of Laughter therapy on the quality of
life of nursing home residents. What does this paper contribute
Background. By improving the quality of life of residents living in nursing homes to the wider global clinical
and allowing them to have a healthier existence, their lives can be extended. community
Therefore, interventions impacting the quality of life of older adults are of critical • It is known that the older adult
importance. population is increasing world-
Design. Quasi-experimental design. wide. For this reason, the num-
ber of residents living in nursing
Method. The study was conducted between 2 March – 25 May 2015. The experi-
homes is also increasing. Previ-
mental group was composed of 32 nursing home residents from one nursing ous research has determined that
home, while the control group consisted of 33 nursing home residents from the quality of life of older adults
another nursing home in the capital city of Turkey. Laughter therapy was applied who live in nursing homes is
with nursing home residents of the experimental group two days per week (21 low.
sessions in total). A socio-demographic form and the Short-Form Health Survey • Interventions are needed to
improve the quality of life of
(SF-36) were used for data collection.
older adults.
Results. After the laughter therapy intervention, general and subscales (physical • Our results indicated that laugh-
functioning, role-physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, ter therapy increased the quality
role-emotional and spiritual health) quality-of-life scores of residents in the exper- of life of nursing home residents.
imental group significantly increased in comparison with the pretest. • Nurses can use laughter therapy
as an intervention to improve the
Conclusion. Laughter therapy improved the quality of life of nursing home resi-
quality of life of nursing home
dents. Therefore, nursing home management should integrate laughter therapy residents. Nursing administration
into health care and laughter therapy should be provided as a routine nursing can make arrangements to use
intervention. laughter therapy in nursing
Relevance to clinical practice. The results indicated that the laughter therapy pro- homes and laughter therapy also
gramme had a positive effect on the quality of life of nursing home residents. can be integrated into nursing
education.
Nurses can use laughter therapy as an intervention to improve quality of life of
nursing home residents.
Key words: laughter therapy, nursing, nursing home residents, older adult, quality
of life
Authors: Nilgun Kuru, PhD, RN, Research Assistant, Department Correspondence: Nilgun Kuru, Research Assistant, Hacettepe
of Public Health Nursing, Hacettepe University Faculty of Nursing University Faculty of Nursing, Ankara, Turkey. Telephone: +90
Ankara; Gulumser Kublay, PhD, RN, Professor, Department of 312 321 2013/+90 312 305 1447.
Public Health Nursing, Hacettepe University Faculty of Nursing E-mail: nilgun.kuru@hacettepe.edu.tr
Ankara, Turkey
exercises, by providing contact with other members of the of 35 residents from another nursing home. However, the
group and by playing children’s games. Often, feigned experimental group was reduced to 32 residents because of
laughter quickly turns into contagious laughter, because the the death of a participant and two residents who received
human body cannot distinguish between fake laughter and treatment in an intensive care unit. In addition, the control
real laughter (Kataria 2011). Humour and laughter are group was reduced to 33 residents due to the death of one
tools frequently used by healthcare personnel in the rehabil- participant and another leaving the nursing home.
itation of disease related to stress and lifestyle and for the
maintenance and improvement of health (Seaward 1992). Data collection
Laughter therapy has been used with different groups The data were collected between 2 March – 25 May 2015.
such as patients with type 2 diabetes (Hayashi et al. 2007), The socio-demographic form and the Medical Outcomes
women receiving in vitro fertilisation (Chung 2011), breast Study (MOS) 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36)
cancer survivors (Cho & Oh 2011) and patients with atopic were used for data collection.
eczema (Kimata 2007). However, studies about the use of
laughter therapy with older adults are limited and have not
Measures
been conducted in Turkey. Thus, this is the first study con-
ducted using laughter therapy in Turkey. Socio-demographic form
The socio-demographic form was created based on the liter-
ature and collected demographic information (gender, age,
Methods
marital status, educational status, occupation, social secu-
rity status, income status) (T.R. Prime Ministry State Plan-
Design
ning Organization, 2007, Aksoydan 2009, Esendemir 2013,
For this study, a quasi-experimental design with pretest/ Hosseinpoor et al. 2013).
posttest control group was used.
SF-36 health survey
The SF-36 Health Survey was developed to measure quality
Sample and data collection
of life related to health. Developed in 1992 by Ware, the
Sample SF-36 is a self-assessment scale (Ware & Sherbourne 1992)
The study population comprised residents from two differ- that comprises 36 questions within two domains, includes a
ent private nursing homes. These nursing homes had the physical component score and mental component score,
same organisational characteristics, management, social ser- and eight subscales including physical functioning, role-
vices care and care processes. G*Power was used to calcu- physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social func-
late the sample size. The estimated sample size was tioning, role-emotional and spiritual health (Ware & Gan-
measured by predicting an average change in scores after dek 1998). Subscales are scored between 0–100 points,
therapy (experimental group before therapy 6600 1184, with 100 representing good health condition and 0 repre-
after therapy 7994 1203; control group before therapy senting bad health condition (Burholt & Nash 2011). The
6719 1354, after therapy 6619 1117) (Cho & Oh scale can be used as a measure of quality of life both before
2011). It was calculated that 90% power could be achieved and after a treatment intervention.
with a 95% confidence interval when 62 subjects (31 in The validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the
each of the experimental and control groups) were selected. SF-36 has been studied in many countries and was con-
Exclusion criteria for participation were having severe hear- firmed for a patient group with rheumatic illness by
ing or perceptual deficits that impair communication, Kocßyigit et al. (1999). Internal consistency measured using
advance dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, uncon- the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for each subscale was
trollable diabetes, hypertensive disease and a surgical opera- found to be within 073–076 (Kocßyi git et al. 1999).
tion with risk of bleeding. Inclusion criteria were over age Among cancer patients, a test–retest internal consistency
50, maintaining independence in daily activities and agree- Cronbach’s alpha value of eight subscales was found (Pinar
ing to take part in the study. The study was carried out 2005). Yakar and Pinar (2013) re-examined the validity
with 70 volunteer residents who met criteria for inclusion. and reliability of the Turkish SF-36 and found a Cron-
Thirty-five residents from one nursing home formed the bach’s alpha value of 090 for the physical functioning sub-
experimental group, while the control group was composed scale and 087 for the mental functioning subscale.
Table 1 Descriptive characteristics of the study population laughter therapy increased. After laughter therapy, a statis-
tically significant difference was found between mean sub-
Experimental Control
Group Group scale scores for the experimental and control group
(p < 005). All quality-of-life subscale scores of older adults
Characteristic n % n %
in the experimental group increased after laughter therapy.
Gender
Female 16 500 15 455
Male 16 500 18 555 Discussion
Age
50–59 3 94 6 182 Research evaluating the effect of laughter therapy on the
60–69 13 406 9 273 quality of life of nursing home residents has been limited. In
70–79 9 281 13 394 this study, the quality of life of nursing home residents
80–89 7 219 5 152 increased after a laughter therapy intervention. Previous
Marital Status
experimental and quasi-experimental studies have demon-
Single 2 630 7 212
strated that laughter therapy increases the quality of life and
Married 7 219 5 152
Widowed 16 500 15 455 positive emotions of residents and that they feel better both
Divorced 7 219 6 182 physically and mentally after laughter therapy (Lebowitz
Education 2002, Hirosaki et al. 2013, Ko & Hyun 2013, Ganz &
Illiterate 4 125 4 121 Jacobs 2014, Cha & Hong 2015). Thus, findings of previous
Literate 3 94 3 91
research are parallel to the findings of this study.
Primary school 5 156 16 485
Secondary school 4 125 4 121 This study demonstrated a statistically significant differ-
High school 10 313 4 121 ence between the physical functioning subscale scores of the
University 6 188 2 61 experimental group before and after laughter therapy
Occupational Status (Table 2). In a randomised controlled study by Keykhaho-
Sales and related 1 30 2 70
seinpoor et al. (2013), carried out with older adults with
Casual worker 4 120 4 130
Parkinson’s disease, a statistically significant difference in
Professional 4 120 11 320
Civil servant 7 210 5 160 motor functions of older adults was found after a laughter
Unskilled worker 4 125 1 40 therapy intervention. A Hatha Yoga programme, used with
Unemployed 13 400 9 280 individuals aged 35–60 years old, positively affected the bal-
Social Security ance and elasticity of older adults (Galantino et al. 2004).
Social insurance institution 12 375 6 182
In this study, the experimental group’s role-physical sub-
Green card 0 00 2 61
Self-employed institution 5 156 9 273 scales scores were significantly different before and after the
Retirement fund 13 406 13 394 laughter therapy intervention (Table 2). Supekar et al.
No 2 63 3 91 (2014) studied the role of laughter therapy clubs in
Income Status increased social health and found significant differences
Yes 29 906 28 8480
between the role-physical subscale scores of the experimen-
No 3 94 5 1520
tal and control groups. This result also supported the pre-
Total 32 1000 33 1000
sent research findings.
In this study, after laughter therapy, bodily pain subscale
no significant difference (p = 0892) between mean general scores of residents were significantly different (Table 2). Tse
quality-of-life scores for the experimental (8932 2063) et al. (2010) studied older adults in a nursing home and
and control groups (9006 2162). In addition, there was found that pain scores after a laughter therapy intervention
no significant difference between mean quality-of-life sub- decreased. In another study in which laughter therapy was
scale scores of the experimental and control groups applied, bodily pain of the experimental and control group
(p > 005). Therefore, before laughter therapy, quality- showed statistically significant differences (Supekar et al.
of-life scores of the experimental and control groups were 2014), supporting the present study’s results. Thus, it is possi-
similar. After laughter therapy, a statistically significant dif- ble that laughter therapy decreases nursing home residents’
ference (p < 001) was found between mean general qual- bodily pain through yoga exercises and regular exercise.
ity-of-life scores of the experimental group General health subscale scores of the experimental group
(12518 1149) and control group (9300 2078), were found to be significantly different after the laughter
respectively. Quality of life of the experimental group after therapy intervention (Table 2). Ghodsbin et al. (2015)
Table 2 Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) scores of the experimental and control groups before and after the laughter therapy intervention
Physical Functioning 2163 599 2628 397 2176 603 2157 531 0000
Role Functioning 516 168 762 118 488 157 509 180 0000
Bodily Pain 628 275 1018 114 661 224 760 234 0000
General Health 1491 356 1818 245 1548 376 1493 359 0000
Physical Component Score 4797 1069 6228 665 4873 1087 4921 1040 0000
Mental Health 195 604 2540 373 1927 565 179 627 0000
Emotional Functioning 384 122 571 0728 388 131 387 136 0000
Social Functioning 603 220 912 950 612 140 666 197 0000
Vitality 1200 497 2018 393 1206 647 1187 604 0000
Mental Component Score 4138 1225 6043 722 4133 1284 4033 1336 0000
General Score 8934 2063 12518 1149 9006 2162 9300 2078 0000
evaluated the effect of laughter therapy on the general In this study, the vitality subscale scores of residents in the
health of older adults and found that general health scores experimental group were significantly different after laughter
were significantly different after laughter therapy. Similarly, therapy (Table 2). Deshpande and Verma (2013) study, which
another study found a direct relationship between health reviewed the effect of quality-of-life therapy on happiness and
status and humour, thus suggesting humour as a method to life satisfaction, found that life satisfaction and happiness
help older adults to stay healthy (Celso et al. 2003). scores of older adults in an experimental group were signifi-
The spiritual health subscale of the SF-36 evaluates the cantly higher than those in a control group. In other research,
calm, happy, relaxed, nervous and depressed moods of indi- negative feelings scores after laughter therapy were lower and
viduals. In this study, the spiritual health subscale of nurs- life satisfaction scores were higher (Song et al. 2013).
ing home residents increased after the intervention. Lee and
Eun (2011) assessed the relationships between sleeping,
Conclusion
depression and pain on the quality of life of older adults
living in long-term nursing homes. A significant effect of In this study, after laughter therapy, quality-of-life total and
laughter therapy was found for depression. In studies of subscale scores (physical functioning, role-physical, role-emo-
laughter therapy activities with patients with depressive tional, bodily pain, general health, spiritual health, social func-
symptoms, a decrease in depression and bad mood of older tioning, vitality) increased among residents living in a nursing
adults was seen after laughter therapy (Hirsch et al. 2010, home. According to these results, it can be said that laughter
Konradt et al. 2013). therapy can be used to increase the quality of life of nursing
The role-emotional subscale scores were also shown to home residents. Future research to evaluate the effect of laugh-
differ after laughter therapy (Table 2). Likewise, research ter therapy on the quality of life of residents should employ a
has shown statistically significant decreases in anxiety levels randomised control group experimental design. In addition, a
of older adults after laughter therapy (Houston et al. 1998, wider sample of participants from nursing homes with different
Marziali et al. 2008). Krebs et al. (2014) evaluated the socio-cultural structures will aid generalisability of findings.
effect of laughter therapy on the behaviours of older adults
and found a decrease in stress scores when spiritual condi-
Relevance to clinical practice
tion and energy significantly were increased. This research
supports the findings of the present study. The results indicated that the laughter therapy programme
Although old age brings about physical constraints, older had a positive effect on the quality of life of nursing home resi-
adults can still be active (Lewis 2003). In this study, social dents. Nurses can use laughter therapy as an intervention to
functioning of residents increased after the intervention. An improve the quality of life of residents living in nursing homes.
increase in interactions among older adults has been shown
in studies evaluating laughter therapy (Everard et al. 2000,
Acknowledgements
Low et al. 2013). Laughter therapy performed as a group
activity also increases interactions among older adults The authors desire to thank all the participants in the
(Kataria 2011). study. And also, we also like to extend our deep
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