A Study to Determine the Effectiveness of Laughter Therapy in Reduction of Depression among Elderly People at Selected Old Age Homes in Amritsar, Punjab

Abstract

Laughter is beneficial for one’s health. The study of humor and laughter and its psychological and physiological effects on the human body is called Glottology. WHO reports highlighted that there are currently about 6000 million elderly person. In India there are 76 million elderly people constituting 7.7% of the total population. These data represent a demographic revolution and require the immediate attention to challenge and opportunities. The disease process has two components, one is the organic disease itself and the second is the mental component in the form of anxiety, depression, and fear. Laughter therapy plays a major role in treating some kinds of mental illness like depression, anxiety disorders, sleep disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and pain management. Quasi experimental design has been adopted for the study to evaluate effectiveness of Laughter therapy. The sample size is the 60 elderly people above the age of 60 years. Convenient sampling technique has been adopted for the conduction of study. The data have been analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics.
An interventional study was carried out to assess the effectiveness of laughter therapy on reduction of depression among elderly people at selected old age homes Amritsar, Punjab. The aim of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of laughter therapy in reduction of depression among elderly people in selected old age home Amritsar. The objectives of the study were (1) to assess the pretest level of depression regarding the experimental and control group; (2) to provide laughter therapy to experimental group; (3) to assess the post-test level of depression regarding the experimental and control group; (4) to find out the effectiveness of laughter therapy regarding the experimental and control group; and (5) to find out the association between depression among the elderly people and selected demographic variables. The research approach was experimental and evaluative in nature. The samples were 60 elderly people (30 experimental and 30 control group) extracted by using probability purposive random-sampling technique and the instrument used to measure their level of depression with Lesher EL, Berry hill JS standardized modified depressive scale against which both groups were assessed before and after implementation of laughter therapy. After imparting laughter therapy for 40 days data were analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. The statistical technique used for analysis was descriptive (mean, SD) and inferential (paired t-test, Chi-square, SE). The results shown that significant difference is observed among experimental group in the level of depression as pre-test and the post-test mean score 25.33, SD ± 1.971 and 17.50, SD ± 4.91. For control group pre- and post-test mean score are, SD ± 1.680 and SD ± 4.63, which shows no significant change in level of depression scores among control group.
In experimental group the calculated paired “t-test” value is 12.175 which is greater than table value at the probability level of 0.05. Therefore, it is proved that laughter therapy has significantly reduced depression level at significantly among experimental group than control group. The study concluded that laughter therapy is an effective method to cope with depression, which can easily incorporate into our daily life so quality of life can be improved. Recommendations based on study findings are-A similar study may be undertaken with a large sample to generalize the findings, replication of study may be undertaken among rehabilitative psychiatric patients to enhance their mental well-being, a qualitative study may be conducted to find out the personal experiences of the persons who are practicing laughter therapy from decades, other complementary therapies may also be studied for their effectiveness in various health problems and meta-analysis of study should be done to assess efficiency of laughter therapy from various studies.