Effects of Laughter Yoga on Symptom Severity, Hope, and Life Engagement in Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy; A Randomized Controlled Study

NCT06654869 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: ATATURKU-NRS-YCY-02
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 60
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Non-pharmacological interventions that promote positive emotional states and coping may play a critical role in care of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.This study aimed to evaluate the effects of laughter yoga on symptoms, hope, and life engagement levels in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Conducted between January and June 2025 at the chemotherapy unit of Atatürk University Research Hospital in Türkiye. . Sixty patients were randomized (30 per group). Five were excluded after randomization before baseline assessment because of changes in medical treatment, leaving 55 participants in the per-protocol analysis (intervention n= 27; control n= 28). Symptom severity, hope, and life engagement were measured at baseline and after four weeks using the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS), Herth Hope Scale (HHS), and Life Engagement Scale (LES). Post-intervention analyses revealed statistically significant improvements in the intervention group compared to the control group. Patients who received laughter yoga reported significantly lower symptom severity on the ESAS (p \< 0.05), along with significantly higher levels of hope and life engagement as measured by the HHS and LES, respectively (p \< 0.05).

Conditions

Cancer; Nurse's Role; Quality of Life

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (3)

• Edmonton Symptom Assesment Scale (ESAS)

  The scale, originally developed by Bruera et al. (1991) to assess nine common symptoms in cancer patients: pain, tiredness, nausea, depression, anxiety, drowsiness, appetite, well-being, and shortness of breath. For this study, the Turkish version validated by Sadırlı and Ünsar (2009) was utilized, which includes three additional symptoms-changes in skin and nails, mouth sores, and numbness in the hands-resulting in a 12-item scale. Each symptom is rated on a numerical scale from 0 "symptom absent" to 10 "worst possible severity". In the Turkish validation study, Cronbach's alpha coefficients were reported as 0.83 for the pre-test and 0.76 for the post-test. In the present study, the Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the scale were calculated as 0.71 and 0.72 for the pre-test and post-test, respectively.

  4 weeks

• Life Engagement Scale

  The Life Engagement scale, developed by Scheier et al. (2006) to assess individuals' life goals and whose Turkish validity and reliability were determined by Akın et al., is a measurement tool consisting of 6 items and a single dimension (life engagement). The scale has a 5-point scale ("1" I completely disagree, "5" I completely agree). Items 1, 3 and 5 are reverse coded in the scale. Increasing scores indicate a high level of life engagement.

  4 weeks

• Herth Hope Scale

  The Herth Hope Scale was developed by Kaye Herth. The scale consists of 30 items. Each item has four options: "Never " "Rarely appropriate," "Sometimes" and "Always " . The corresponding scores are 0, 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The respondent is asked to mark a single option for each item. The scale consists of 3 sub-dimensions. These are "Future," "Positive Readiness and Expectation," and "Relationships Between Oneself and Those Around Oneself." The "Future" sub-dimension measures the cognitive-temporal dimension of hope, the "Positive Readiness and Expectation" sub-dimension measures the emotional-behavioral dimension of hope, and the "Relationships Between Oneself and Those Around Oneself" sub-dimension measures the dimension of hope related to relationships and the conditions in which it exists. The total hope score varies between 0-90, and the total score of each subscale varies between 0-30. High scores, It shows that hope is high.

  4 weeks

Study Arms (2)

Arm 2

NO INTERVENTION

Arm 1

EXPERIMENTAL

laughter yoga

Behavioral: lauhgter yoga

Interventions

lauhgter yoga BEHAVIORAL

include laughter yoga effects on cancer patients' symptom management

Arm 1

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Ataturk University: lead

Study Sites (1)

Atatürk Üniversitesi

Erzurum, Yakutiye, 25080, Turkey (Türkiye)

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Neoplasms

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Masking Details: Allocation concealment was ensured by an independent external researcher who held the randomization list and was not involved in patient recruitment or intervention thus ensuring that the researchers remained blinded to the group assignments during the initial evaluation.
• Purpose: SUPPORTIVE CARE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Principal Investigator

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: September 26, 2024
• First Posted: October 23, 2024
• Study Start: January 30, 2025
• Primary Completion: June 30, 2025
• Study Completion: August 15, 2025
• Last Updated: August 26, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-08

Locations

TU (1)