Yirou Niu
School of Nursing, Jilin University, China.
Title: The Effect of Laughing Qigong Program on Depression in the Elderly with chronic diseases
Biography
Biography: Yirou Niu
Abstract
Pension agency have become an important supplement to the social elderly service system in China. Elderly people in the pension agency may suffer from depression due to pain caused by chronic diseases. Non-pharmacological intervention is becoming one of the adjuvant treatment methods to improve the psychological condition for the elderly. Laughing Qigong Program (LQP) is a pattern of exercise that combines laugher and Chinese Qigong, so the LQP advantage includes the physical, physiological and/or psychological benefits of laughter and Chinese Qigong. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of LQP on depression in the elderly living in the pension agency in Changchun, China.According to the inclusion/exclusion criteria, 53 elderly were enrolled from the 2 pension agencies in Changchun, China. 27 participants were in the intervention group and received LQP exercise for 4 weekswhile 26 participants in the control group received routine care. Geriatric Depression Scale (DGS), Global Pain Scale (GPS), Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Medical Outcome Survey 36-item Short Form health Survey (SF-36), Activity of Daily Living Scale (ADL) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were evaluated. Results: Compared with the control group, LQP for 4 weeks significantly decreased DGS scores and significantly increased SF-36 scores for the elderly in the intervention group (P＜0.01). LQP might inhibit the reduction of MMSE and MoCA. Conclusion LQP as a non-pharmacological intervention method could improve the depression symptoms and slow down the cognitive function decline in the elderly with chronic diseases.