The Effect of Laughter Therapy on Arthralgia, Ankylosis, Depression, and Sleep of Elderly Housebound Women with Osteoarthritis

, Kim, Chung Soon; , Jang, Sook Hi; , Cho, You Young

doi:2015.17.2.123

J Korean Biol Nurs Sci > Volume 17(2); 2015 > Article

Original Article

Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science 2015;17(2):123-131.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7586/jkbns.2015.17.2.123 Published online May 31, 2015.

The Effect of Laughter Therapy on Arthralgia, Ankylosis, Depression, and Sleep of Elderly Housebound Women with Osteoarthritis

Kim, Chung Soon , Jang, Sook Hi , Cho, You Young

¹Department of Nursing, Hanyeong College, Yeosu, Korea. jskim4670@hanmail.net
²Department of Nursing, Cheongam College, Sunchon, Korea.

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of laughter therapy on arthralgia, ankylosis, depression and sleep of elderly housebound women suffering from osteoarthritis.
METHODS
The study used a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The participants were 48 elderly women: 23 in the experimental group and 25 in the control group. The experimental group received laughter therapy twice a week for 4 weeks. The results were analyzed by using chi2-test, ANCOVA, and t-test with the SPSS/WIN 21.0 program.
RESULTS
The results showed that laughter therapy had a significant statistical effective in reducing arthralgia, ankylosis, and depression and improving the quality of sleep as evidenced by the differences between the two groups.
CONCLUSION
The results of this study indicated that laughter therapy is an effective nursing intervention reducing arthralgia, ankylosis, and depression and improving the quality of sleep in these women. Therefore, it is necessary to develop laughter therapy as an independent nursing intervention for elderly women with osteoarthritis who are housebound.

Key Words: Laughter Therapy, Arthralgia, Ankylosis, Depression, Sleep