Humor in aging: is it able to enhance wellbeing in community dwelling older adults?

Abstract

The present study aimed at examining the effects of humor on community-dwelling older adults’ wellbeing. A humor-based intervention was introduced to older adults - members of the Open Care Center for Older Adults, in order to enhance five components of wellbeing as psychological flourishing (positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment). The sample consisted of 40 (20 male, 20 female) participants aged 65-91 years old, screened for depressive symptomatology and objective cognitive impairment. Participants were randomly divided into two groups (experimental / control group), matched in age, gender, and education, and were assigned two different researcher-administered tasks (recollection of humorous events / recollection of early memories) respectively. The Positive Psychological Intervention (PPI) of humor and the control condition lasted one month. Wellbeing was measured by the PERMA Profiler instrument at three times (pretest, posttest, follow-up). The results regarding the specific components of wellbeing as psychological flourishing showed that only the participants in the experimental condition tended to score higher in the posttest assessment compared to the pretest measurement and these results remained relatively unaffected one month after the intervention (follow-up). Hence a humor-based intervention could indeed contribute to the improvement of wellbeing as psychological flourishing in aging.