Laughter therapy on general health among older adult at selected old age home, Coimbatore

Ageing does not just affect the elderly (defined as 60 years or more); it affects everyone in society in one way or the other. Globally, the elderly population constitutes about 12 percent of the total population of 7.3 billion. Laughter therapy as a self-care technique has potential as a low-cost intervention strategy to reduce stress and counteract negative emotions among older adult in old age home.

To assess the effectiveness of laughter therapy on general health among older adult at selected old age home, Coimbatore

Pre experimental one group pretest-posttest design was adopted. Convenient sampling technique was used and 40 older adult were selected at Mother Theresa Home in Coimbatore. Intervention of the study laughter therapy, when the laugh should last for 30–40 seconds, followed by clapping and ‘ho ho ha haha’ exercise. Take two deep breaths after every laughter exercises. Leader punctuates each activity by walking around clapping and saying several times ‘ho ha haha’ and after the group picks it up raise arms up and say, very Good very yah ‘and followed by 15 steps of laughter yoga actives for 20 to 30 minutes. The data was collected, organized and analyzed in terms of both descriptive and inferential statistics.

The analysis revealed that the mean value of pretest was 8.35 and was increased in posttest to 19.77. The difference between the pretest and posttest mean was 11.42. The‘t’ value was 61.27, which had high statistical significance at p<0.001 level and which confirms that there was a statistically significant difference between pretest and posttest General health.

This study proves that “Laughter therapy was effective in improving General health of older adult”, who residing in Old Age Home.