Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an age-specific neurodegenerative disease and is the main cause of dementia. No
definitive treatment for AD has been established, and non-pharmacological treatments are expected to maintain and
improve the quality of life of dementia patients. In this study, we implemented a laughter yoga program for elderly AD
patients and examined its effects of stress reduction, determined by measuring salivary amylase activity (sAA), and
cognitive function improvement, determined on the basis of cognitive function test scores. The subjects were nine
patients (nine females) who were living in a group home and diagnosed as having AD, among which two were in their
70s, five in their 80s, and two in their 90s. We conducted a seven-day intervention with laughter yoga, and the sAA of
the subjects was determined by collecting saliva before and after laughter yoga each day. In addition, cognitive function
tests were conducted before and after the seven-day intervention, including the Hasegawa Dementia Scale-Revised
(HDS-R) and a one-minute word recall screening test. The results showed that performing laughter yoga had the
effect of lowering the sAA in AD patients, which means reducing stress, but the effect was only significant on the day
the laughter yoga was performed. On the other hand, the seven-day intervention with laughter yoga had no effect on
lowering sAA and cognitive function test scores.
