The Effectiveness of Laughter Yoga Exercises on Anxiety and Sleep Quality in the Elderly suffering from Parkinson's Disease

Abstract

Elderliness is one of the most sensitive stages in the development of a person's life, and passing through it with a high quality of life can facilitate the process. Parkinson's after Alzheimer's is the most common disease in the elderly, and this requires more attention in the field of treatment. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of laughter yoga exercises on the anxiety level and quality of sleep in the elderly suffering from Parkinson's. The present study was semi empirical using pre-test and post-test. The sample of this study was 24 elderly patients with Parkinson's disease referred to Hazrat Rasoul-e-Akram Hospital (Tehran, Iran) in the age range of 55 to 75. The participants were randomly assigned into two groups of experimental and control, each group containing 12 patients. The tools used in this research included Beck Anxiety Inventory and The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The experimental group, in addition to the usual drug therapy, was subjected to two sessions (45 minutes each) per week for 8 weeks, under the supervision of an official and specialist trainer. Mann–Whitney U test and Shapiro–Wilk test were used for data analysis. The results showed that a period of laughter yoga exercises led to a significant reduction in anxiety level in the elderly with Parkinson's disease (P

Keywords

• yoga
• laughter
• anxiety
• sleep quality
• parkinson's disease