• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.248-256
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• 2012

Purpose: This study examines the difference of optimism, self-esteem and depression to verify an effect of laughter therapy program for menopausal women. Methods: A quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group pre / post-test design was used. The participants (n=57) were 28 in the experimental group and 29 in the control group. The data were collected in December of 2011. The experimental group participated in laughter therapy for 30 min per session, five times a week for the period of 2 weeks. The questionnaires were used to measure pre / post-test optimism, self-esteem, and depression of menopausal women. Results: The results showed that laughter therapy was effective in increasing optimism (p= .020) and self-esteem (p<.001). And the depression of menopausal women decreased (p= .003). Conclusion: The result of the study indicates that laughter therapy for menopausal women may be an effective nursing intervention to improve optimism, self-esteem and depression of menopausal women.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.34-45
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of laughter therapy and cognitive reinforcement program on self-efficacy, depression and cognitive functions of the elderly with mild cognitive impairments (MCI). Methods: The study design was a non-equivalent control group pre and posttest design. Thirty-six subjects over the age of 65 with a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment were assigned either to a treatment or a comparison group. Data were collected from February 7 to March 27, 2012 in the dementia supporting center. An eight week treatment program that included laughter therapy coupled with a cognitive reinforcing program including hand exercise, laughter dance routine, laughter technic and cognitive training for attention, memory, orientation and execution skill. Results: MoCA-K (t=-6.86, p<.001) and Stroop test CW correct (t=-2.54, p=.008), self-efficacy (t=-3.62, p=.001) in the treatment group were significantly higher than those of the comparison group. Reported depression (t=2.29, p=.014), Stroop test CW error (U=53.50, p<.001) in the treatment group was significantly less than the comparison group. Conclusion: In this study, the treatment was effective in improving self-efficacy, cognitive function and reducing depression in the elderly with MCI.

• Asian Oncology Nursing
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.93-100
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of laughter therapy on mood, state anxiety, and serum cortisol based on a Stress-Coping Model for preoperative breast cancer patients. Methods: The study used a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The participants were 40 breast cancer patients who were admitted to one general hospital for surgery in 2009 (experimental group 23, control group 17). The experimental group received one hour laughter therapy consisting of dance, lots of laughter techniques, and meditation. Results: The mean ages were 47 years (experimental group) and 49 years (control group). There were no significant differences in demographic and disease-related characteristics between the two groups. After the intervention, the scores of mood and state-anxiety of experimental group were significantly improved than those of control group. However, no difference was found in serum cortisol. Conclusion: The laughter therapy was partially effective in improving stress response in patients with breast cancer. Further research is needed to develop and evaluate the longer periods of interventions to testify the effects on serum cortisol, and other biochemical variables.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.123-131
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• 2015

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 $X^2$-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.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.28-38
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• 2011

Purpose: This paper was aimed to investigate the effect of laugher therapy on the pain, depression and sleep disturbance in elderly patients who admitted in long term care facility. Method: This study used a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. A sample of 40 elderly patients (20: experimental group, 20: control group, 65 or older) were recruited. Visual analogue scale was used to measure level of pain level, Geriatric Depression Scale Short Form Korea Version (GDSSF-K) for depression. Sleep Scale for sleep. The laugher therapy was given twice a week for four weeks (8 times). Each therapy consists of preparatory, action and finishing stage. Data were analyzed by PASW 18.0. Results: The pain score in experimental group was significantly different from that in control group (t=4.17, p<.001). The level of depression in experimental group was significantly different from that in control group (Z=4.12, p<.000). The level of sleep in experimental group was not significantly different from that in control group (Z=-1.43, p<.152). Conclusion: A laugher therapy is expected to be practical used an efficient method of a nursing intervention to elderly patients in long term care facility.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.121-128
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• 2016

Purpose: This study was aimed at constructing and examining the effects of a laughter therapy program for elderly patients in long-term care hospitals. Methods: A prospective, two-group quasi-experimental design was used and 50 patients (25 experimental and 25 control group patients) from two long-term care hospitals in Gyeonggido province, South Korea, were study participants. The experimental group received 24 laughter therapy sessions twice a week for 12 weeks, and the control group received laughter therapy after data collection. Data were collected between May 26 and August 17, 2014. Results: The level of cognitive function for the experimental group increased(t=3.27, p=.002). The level of forced vital capacity (t=2.78, p=.008) and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (t=4.94, p<.001) increased among members of the experimental group. Conclusion: These results indicated that the laughter program was effective in improving cognitive and pulmonary functions among older patients who were receiving long-term care in hospitals. This program could be used for community-based elderly patients.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.36-45
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• 2009

Purpose: This study was to determine the effects of laughter therapy on stress response and pain of military patients with low back pain. Method: The subjects in the experimental group received 3-sessions of laughter therapy on 3 consecutive days. The primary outcome measures were state anxiety, depression, blood pressure, pulse rate and pain. Result: After 3 sessions of laughter therapy, the scores of state anxiety(p=.046), depression(p=.028) and pulse rate(p=.003) were significantly lower and diastolic blood pressure(p=.038) was significantly higher in the experimental group than those in the control group. The level of pain(p=.711) was not different significantly between two groups. Conclusion: Laughter therapy could be an effective strategic intervention for military patients with low back pain to reduce the level of anxiety and depression. Further studies are needed to determine long-term effects of laughter therapy and its effects on cardiovascular system and pain.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.83-93
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• 2010

Purpose: This study identified effects of laughter therapy administered to mastectomy patients as an adaptive coping mechanism. Methods: The study design was a non-synchronized design with a non-equivalent control group. Participants were 40 patients admitted to S hospital in Busan from July 1 to October 10, 2008. The laughter therapy was provided to the experimental group for 20 minutes, four times per week for 2 weeks in each patient's room. Results: The experimental and control groups showed significant differences in Mood (t=-2.314, p=.032), and Stress (t=-2.535 p=.020). Pain and serum cortisol in the experimental and control groups did not show any significant difference. Conclusion: Based on the findings the laughter therapy has significant effects on mastectomy patients' mood and stress.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.82-90
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• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a CD program of applied logotherapy to improve the quality of life of older school-age children with terminal cancer. Methods: Keller's ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction) theory and a model for developing learning materials (Dick and Cray) were applied to develop this program which comprised four distinct phases: planning, developing, applying, and evaluation stages. Results: This program was entitled 'Finding treasures in my mind' and consisted of 5 sessions, and its educational contents were made up as follows: "Treasure One" is 'learning three natures of the human mind', "Treasure Two" is 'learning creative value as first method to find meaning of life', "Treasure Three" is 'learning experiential value as second method to find meaning of life', "Treasure Four" is 'learning attitudinal value as third method to find meaning of life', and "Treasure Five" is 'Becoming the master of my life'. The sub-menu was made up of 'Beginning', 'What is it?', 'Travelling'. 'Laughing Song', and 'End'. Conclusion: This CD program is an applied logotherapy with flash animation technique as an emotional and spiritual intervention program for easier and more scientific application in pediatric oncology and hospice area.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.494-503
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• 2011

In this paper, we propose a recognition application of facial expression for laughter theraphy on smartphone. It detects face region by using AdaBoost face detection algorithm from the front camera image of a smartphone. After detecting the face image, it detects the lip region from the detected face image. From the next frame, it doesn't detect the face image but tracks the lip region which were detected in the previous frame by using the three step block matching algorithm. The size of the detected lip image varies according to the distance between camera and user. So, it scales the detected lip image with a fixed size. After that, it minimizes the effect of illumination variation by applying the bilateral symmetry and histogram matching illumination normalization. After that, it computes lip eigen vector by using PCA(Principal Component Analysis) and recognizes laughter expression by using a multilayer perceptron artificial network. The experiment results show that the proposed method could deal with 16.7 frame/s and the proposed illumination normalization method could reduce the variations of illumination better than the existing methods for better recognition performance.