| Keywords |
Laughter therapy ; Cognitive function ; Depression ; Quality of life ; Aged |
| Abstract |
The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of laughter therapy on cognitive function, depression and quality of life in community-dwelling elders receiving visiting nursing service. A quasi-experimental with nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design was implemented. The participants were senior citizens over 65 years of age who received visiting nursing service in community health center(experimental group: 27, control group: 31). The experimental group participated in the visiting nursing laughter therapy for eight weeks developed in this study. After the intervention, the participants in the experimental group reported significant improvement in cognitive function, depression and quality of life when compared to those in the control group. These findings indicate that the visiting nursing laughter therapy could be an effective intervention program to improve cognitive function, depression and quality of life. |