Laughter is good medicine for nursing home residents

(HealthDay)—Laughter therapy improves the quality of life of nursing home residents, according to a study published online Dec. 16 in the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

Nilgun Kuru and Gulumser Kublay, Ph.D., from the Hacettepe University Faculty of Nursing in Ankara, Turkey, compared the effectiveness of laughter therapy (two days per week for 21 sessions in total) in 32 nursing home residents from one nursing home versus a control group of 33 nursing home residents at another nursing home who did not receive laughter therapy.

The researchers found that total and subscale (physical functioning, role-physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, role-emotional, and spiritual health) quality-of-life scores significantly increased in the experimental group after the laughter therapy intervention compared with the pretest.

"Nursing home management should integrate laughter therapy into health care and laughter therapy should be provided as a routine nursing intervention," the authors write.