Comparison of the effects of laughter therapy and breathing exercises on pulmonary function and psychological well-being among smokers at Coimbatore By Mr.Raja.A

Back ground of the study Nothing is permanent in this world, except change. As a result of changes in physical, mental and social aspects of human beings, we experience a variety of emotions and feelings. One such emotion is stress. Nowadays stress has become a part of everyday life in all individuals. Being the greatest creation of God, human beings use their ideas to cope with stress situations in positive and negative manner. Nurses as member of health team are knowledgeable about complimentary therapies like yoga, meditation, relaxation, exercises, and laughter and music therapies which positively influence stress. There are certain habits that have an influence on stress. One such habit is smoking. If we ask 100 people to quickly name one thing that’s bad for our health, a vast majority would undoubtedly say smoking. The ill effects of smoking on health are widely known, yet millions of people still continue to smoke despite all the risks involved. WHO defines health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely an absence of disease or infirmity, yet smoking affects all the dimensions of health. Globally, smoking is the single biggest preventable cause of death. Smoking kills millions worldwide each year. Tobacco claims 4.9 million lives a year, and if the present consumption pattern continues, the number of deaths will increase by 2020 to 10 million, 70% of which will occur in developing countries. There are an stimated 1.3 billion smokers and half of them (some 650 million people) are expected to die prematurely of a tobacco-related disease. At the current rate, the number of smokers will rise from today’s 1.3 billion to 1.7 billion by 2025. Deep breathing exercise was found to be statistically significant in improving the pulmonary function of patients with chronic airflow limitation. The parasympathetic nervous system takes over when one is breathing deeply and fully, thus stimulating a relaxation response. Laughter therapy is a modified form of breathing exercise, gives workout to the muscles of respiration. Laughter is a combination of modified respiratory movements. It can be defined as an inspiration x followed by many short convulsive expirations, during which the rima glottides remains open and the vocal folds vibrate. Laughter is one of the finest, most economical and easy to practice anti-stress measure and one of the best muscle relaxant. By personal experience, the researcher found that many individuals initiated smoking due to stress. Many smokers reported that one of the reasons for smoking was relieving stress and the frequency of smoking was determined by stressful occasions in daily life. Laughter is the best antidote for stress and stress is the important provoking factor for smoking. It is a well known fact that breathing exercises improve pulmonary function and relaxation, but how far the laughter therapy as a modified breathing exercise improves pulmonary functions and psychological well-being was the interest of the researcher. So the researcher intended to compare the effect of laughter therapy and breathing exercises on pulmonary function and psychological well-being among smokers as part of holistic nursing interventions.