Senilityconsists of ages nearing or surpassing the life expectancy of human begins, and thus the end of the human life cycle.WHO reports that there are currently about 6000 million old-age persons in the world aged 60 years and above;they have frustration and feeling of stress and anxiety about their remaining life.Changing family structure and attitude of younger generation towards the aged have led to a sharp rise in old age homes.To promote the psychological wellbeing and general health by reducing the stress and anxiety through the most effective therapy applicable for all age group is laughter therapy. So the study was to assess the effectiveness of laughter therapy on stress and anxiety among elderly at selected old age home, Puducherry. The aim of the study wasto evaluate the effectiveness of laughter therapy on stress and anxiety among elderly at selected old age home, Puducherry. The Pre- experimental study with one group pretest and posttest design was conducted among 60 elderly of Hospice Home for the aged. The samples were selected by using simple random sampling technique. The pretest of Stress and Anxiety was assessed by using Modified Cohen Perceived Stress Scale and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale.The laughter therapy was administered for 20 minutes daily for 21 days. The Post test was conducted by using same tool. The study result showed that out of 60 elderly, the post-test level of stress median score (17.5) was significantly less than the pre-test level of stress median score (23.5) by using Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test (6.383) and the post-test level of anxiety median scores (16) was significantly less than the pre-test level of anxiety median scores (19) by using Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test (6.383) and indicates that laughter therapywas significantly effective in reducing stress and anxiety P-value <0.001. Thus this study proves that “Laughter therapy was effective in reduction of Stress and Anxiety among elderly”, who residing in Old Age Home.
