Informatics Publishing Limited

Jaya Rani George ¹, Vineetha Jacob ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Mental Health Nursing, Yenepoya Nursing College, Deralakatte, Mangalore, IN

Abstract

Many older adults find themselves more alone than ever before as longstanding friends and relatives die and family and friends relocate to different geographical areas. If entry into residential care is necessary, older adults become more isolated. The most common emotional disorder in the elderly population is depression. A study to assess the effectiveness of laughter therapy on depression among elderly people in selected old age homes at Mangalore.The main objective of the study to determine the effectiveness of laughter therapy among experimental group. The conceptual framework adopted for the study was based on the framework of Roy's adaptation model. The study design was two group pre-test post- test design. The population of the study was elderly people at selected old age homes at Mangalore.Purposive sampling technique was used for selecting the study subjects. The sample comprised of 60 samples above the age of 60 years .The tool used for the study were demographic proforma and modified Geriatric Depression Scale. The study result showed that the mean post-test depression scores (11.97) was apparently lower than the mean pre-test depression score (16.97). The pre-test depression score rocked to 43.3% for the moderate level of depression while the post-test depression score reached an all-time high of 63.3% for the mild level of depression. There was a significant difference between pre-test depression score and the post-test depression scores (t= 37.696, p < 0.05).The pre-test depression score was independent of all the demographic variables such as age, gender, religion, marital status, years of stay in old age home, any illness. The findings of the study shows that the intervention programme was effective in reducing the depression among elderly people.

Keywords

Effectiveness, Elderly, Depression, Laughter Therapy

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Sneha Augustine ¹, Sneha Thampy Paul ¹, Tisin Thomas ¹, Josna George ¹, Lavina Rodrgues ², Vineetha Jacob ²

Affiliations
1 Yenepoya Nursing College, Yenepoya University , Mangaluru, IN
2 Department of Psychiatric Nursing, Yenepoya Nursing College Mangaluru, IN

Abstract

Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a range of complex neurodevelopment disorders, characterized by social impairments, communication difficulties, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behaviour. The study was aimed to assess the knowledge regarding Autism Spectrum Disorder among the teachers of selected primary schools at Mangaluru. Materials and methods: A descriptive research design with an evaluative approach was adopted for the study. 50 teachers of selected primary schools who met the inclusion criteria were selected through convenience sampling technique. The investigators developed an information booklet and structured knowledge questionnaire on ASD was used to collect the data. Results: Descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyse the data. Analysis revealed that the majority of the samples (60%) had good knowledge, 24% had excellent knowledge and 16% had average knowledge. Chisquare test is used to find the association of knowledge scores with selected demographic variable. All the variables showed no significant association of the knowledge scores with selected demographic variable at 0.05 level of significance. Conclusion: The overall findings of the study revealed that majority of the teachers of selected primary schools had good knowledge regarding Autism Spectrum Disorder. Hence an information booklet on ASD were provided to the samples those had average knowledge on ASD.

Keywords

Knowledge, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Teachers, Primary Schools, Information Booklet.

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