Feature ArticleThe effect of humor on elder mental and physical health
Introduction
Promoting health and well-being among older people is a growing challenge. The search for effective interventions has led to the therapeutic use of humor as a possible method to promote improved mental and physical health.1 Humor is generally defined as a positive global mental state, unique to each individual, spanning aspects of cognition, emotion, behavior, and communication. The humor workshop in this study can be seen as a type of humor therapy defined by Goodenough and colleagues2 as an intervention that stimulates the discovery, expression or appreciation of the absurdity or incongruity of life's episodes in order to facilitate physical, mental, emotional, social or spiritual healing and coping, thus leading to improved mental and physical health.
Section snippets
Humor and physical and mental health
Several mechanisms have been postulated to explain the association between humor and mental and physical health.3 Evidence supports numerous positive physiological effects on several bodily systems including musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular, endocrine, immune and nervous systems.4, 5, 6, 7 A second mechanism is the effect of positive emotions such as humor on mental health.3 Laughter therapy was found to significantly decrease levels of depression among a sample of community
Subjects
The target population for this study was community dwelling older adults. The inclusion criterion was attendance at one of four senior centers used in the study. Exclusion criteria were inability to read or write in either Hebrew or English and cognitive impairment (as assessed by the administrator/social worker in charge of the center). See Fig. 1 for the recruitment and drop-out rates for this sample.
Setting
The workshop was presented to the senior administrator responsible for social welfare
Results
The sample consisted of 92 subjects, 42 in the control group and 50 in the humor workshop group (see Fig. 1). Most of the participants were females (n = 67, 74.4% among those who responded) either married (n = 45, 48.9%) or widowed (n = 45, 48.9%). The mean age of the sample was 76.9 (SD – 6.8). Similar numbers of respondents either lived alone (n = 41, 44.6%) or with a spouse (n = 45, 48.9%). Most were not born in Israel (n = 75, 81.3% among those that responded) (see Table 3). Subjects in the
Discussion
This study demonstrates the positive influence of a humor intervention workshop among a community dwelling sample of older people. Improvements in mental health (well being, anxiety and depression) were shown at 6 months, in comparison to a control group. No changes were observed in self-assessed measures of physical health or function.
Conclusion
We found that the implementation of a five month humor workshop, aimed at encouraging the use of humor strategies, among community dwelling older people was associated with positive effects upon subsequent depression, anxiety and general well-being. We encourage similar workshops be added to the programs of community centers and recommend that further research be aimed at investigating the use of humor with other older populations.
Acknowledgments
This study was partially funded by the Israel Ministry of Social Welfare and was supported by the Netanya and Rishon Le Zion municipalities. Thanks go to Mr. Enzo Agada Goren and Mr. Modechai Greenberg for their active participation in the design and data collection of the study. Thanks also go to the “Happy Nation Society” whose members supported the study and dedicated their time and effort to its completion.
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