Effectiveness of Laughter Therapy in Increasing the Life Expectancy of Old Women

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of laughter therapy on life expectancy in the elderly women. This is a quasi-experimental study in which 34 people from among all elderly women living in nursing homes in Shiraz in 2014 were selected through convenient sampling. Of which, 17 patients were randomly assigned to the experimental group and 17 to the control group. Only the experimental group participated in 15 sessions of one hourlaughter therapy and the control group received no intervention. Instrument was Miller's life expectancy questionnaire that was done in the pre-test and post-test on all members. Finally, data was analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance by SPSS-18 at a significance levelof 0.05. Results of beta coefficient showed that laughter therapy increases life expectancy in the elderly that was 0.73. So it seems that with the increase of laughter and joy, the life expectancy and, in general, mental health in older women can beincreased

Keywords:

Laughter therapy , life expectancy , the elderly , women