The Comparison between the Effectiveness of Laughter Therapy and Progressive Muscle Relaxation Therapy towards Insomnia in Elderly Community at St. Yoseph Kediri Nursing Home

Abstract

Background: The elderly need support to maintain their health because of the declined changes in theirphysical and psychological. Sleep disorders are a collection of health problems experienced by the elderly,one of which is insomnia. Some elderly can manage sleep disorders (insomnia) without medicine, namelyby modality therapy, such as laughter therapy and progressive muscle relaxation therapy.Research Objectives: This study aims to compare the effectiveness of laughter therapy and progressivemuscle relaxation therapy to decrease insomnia to the elderly community at the St. Yoseph Kediri NursingHome.Method: This research design was a Quasy experiment with two group pre-test and post-test design approach.The sampling technique used purposive sampling with a total of 28 respondents and then divided into 2groups who got laughter therapy or progressive muscle relaxation therapy. This study measured insomniawith the ISI (Insomnia Severity Index) questionnaire. The statistical tests used the Wilcoxon sign rank test.Results: The study suggests that there was the effect of laughter therapy (p=0.002 and z score=3.025) andprogressive muscle relaxation therapy (p = 0.004 and z score=2.850) towards insomnia to the elderly.Conclusion: The laughter therapy intervention gave a slightly higher impact that was evidenced by thereduction of Insomnia scale on 11 people in this group, whereas in the group with progressive musclerelaxation therapy reduced insomnia scale on 10 people.