Neoplasms

Skin and Connective Tissue Diseases

All Conditions

Behaviors and Mental Disorders

Breast Neoplasms

Quality of Life

The women with breast cancer in the intervention group received two sessions of laughter therapy per week for eight weeks.Each laughter therapy session lasted 40 minutes.

The control group did not receive any intervention during the study period.

Each session started with a 10-minute breathing exercise accompanied by relaxing music, followed by 20-minute laughing exercises. Afterwards, the session was ended with a 10-minute meditation accompanied by relaxing music.

Laughter therapy

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer seen in women worldwide and ranks first. Chemotherapy is one of the commonly used methods of treatment in breast cancer. Physiological and psychological symptoms that occur due to chemotherapy treatment affect women negatively and reduce their quality of life. For this reason, there is a need for an intervention that could decrease psychological symptoms such as stress and improve quality of life in women with breast cancer. In the literature, it is stated that laughter therapy which is one of the non-pharmacological methods, can be an effective nursing intervention to decrease stress and improve the quality of life in women with breast cancer.

This an assessor-blinded, parallel group randomized controlled trial aimed that investigating the effect of laughter therapy on perceived stress and quality of life in women with breast cancer.This trial was conducted in the chemotherapy outpatient clinic of training and research hospital located in Turkey. All patients were women with breast cancer who received a once-weekly Paclitaxel regimen.

Effect of Laughter Therapy on Perceived Stress and Quality of Life

Effect of Laughter Therapy on Perceived Stress and Quality of Life in Women With Breast Cancer: An Assessor-blinded, Parallel Group, Randomized Controlled Trial

The scale consists of 14 items in total and was designed to measure how stressful the changing situations in the individual's life are perceived.The scale is a 5-point Likert-type scale with each item ranging from "never (0)" to "very often (4)". 7 of the scale items with positive expressions are scored in reverse and the total score that can be obtained from the scale ranges from 0 to 56. Eskin et al. performed the validity and reliability study of the Turkish version of Perceived Stress Scale and the internal consistency of the scale was determined to be 0.82.

The scale evaluates the quality of life of individuals.The scale consists of 12 items and two sub-dimensions in total.While the items related to physical and emotional role were answered as yes or no, the other items had likert type options ranging between 3 and 6. While the Physical Component Summary-12 (PCS-12) score was obtained from the sub-dimensions of general health, physical functionality, physical role and body pain; The Mental Component Summary-12 (MCS-12) score was obtained from the sub-dimensions of social functionality, emotional role, mental health and energy. Both the PCS-12 and MCS-12 scores range from 0 to 100, with the higher score representing better health.Soylu et al. performed the validity and reliability study of the Turkish version of Quality of Life Scale (SF-12) and the internal consistency of the scale was determined to be 0.73.

Izmir Bakircay University

Asistant Professor

Anxiety Disorders

Depression

Depressive Disorder

Breast Diseases

Skin Diseases

Behavioral Symptoms

Women diagnosed with breast cancer who meet the inclusion criteria and are receiving chemotherapy will receive laughter therapy twice a week for an average of 40-60 minutes for 8 weeks.

Women diagnosed with breast cancer who meet the inclusion criteria and are receiving chemotherapy will receive an average of 40-60 minutes of mindfulnes therapy twice a week for 8 weeks.

Women diagnosed with breast cancer who meet the inclusion criteria and are receiving chemotherapy will receive standard hospital care only.

They will gather in five-person chemotherapy rooms, and laughter therapy will be applied to the women in the application group while they are receiving chemotherapy. Sessions will last approximately 40-60 minutes.The application will last for a total of 8 weeks, twice a week.

the laughter therapy group

Mindfulnes therapy will be applied to the women in the application group while they are receiving chemotherapy, in five-person chemotherapy rooms. Sessions will last approximately 40-60 minutes.The application will last for a total of 8 weeks, twice a week.

the mindfulness therapy group

Zehra Coktay, phd stu

Rukiye Turk Delibalta, assoc prof

zehra coktay, phd stu

zehra Coktay, phd stu

Breast cancer is defined as the most common type of cancer that causes death among women (Siegel et al. 2019). It constitutes 24% of cancers and 15% of cancer-related deaths in women (T.R. Ministry of Health 2020). According to statistics made towards the end of 2020, there are 7.8 million women in the world who were diagnosed with breast cancer in the last 5 years and are alive. It is estimated that one in every 8 women will develop breast cancer in developed countries (WHO 2021).

The Ministry of Health reported the frequency of breast cancer in our country as 45.6/100,000 in women in 2018. The incidence of breast cancer is reported to be higher, especially in the 45-54 age range (TC Ministry of Health 2020).

Chemotherapy is one of the most frequently preferred treatment methods in the treatment of breast cancer and can cause serious side effects such as pain, nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite, shortness of breath, mouth sores, fatigue, insomnia, anxiety and depression, and may lead to a deterioration in the quality of life of patients (Waks and Winer 2019, Samami et al. 2021, Sajadian et al. 2017, McFarland et al. 2018, Hamer et al. 2017).

In the international and national literature, no study has been found comparing the effects of laughter and mindfulness therapy on the anxiety, depression, quality of life and spiritual well-being experienced by breast cancer patients. In this study, it is planned to investigate the effects of laughter and mindfulness therapy applications on the anxiety, depression, quality of life and spiritual well-being levels of women with breast cancer receiving chemotherapy.

Since breast cancer is a type of cancer more common in women, only patients diagnosed with female breast cancer were included.

The Effect of Laughter and Mindfulness Therapy Applications on Women With Breast Cancer Receiving Chemotherapy: Randomized Controlled Study

The Effect of Laughter and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Applications on Anxiety, Depression, Quality of Life and Spiritual Well-Being Levels of Women With Breast Cancer Receiving Chemotherapy: Randomized Controlled Study

According to the scoring, 0-1 is considered as not sick, 2 is borderline sick, and 2-3 is considered seriously ill.

Higher scores on the functional scale indicate higher/healthier functions, and higher scores on the general health status/quality of life indicate higher quality of life. However, high scores on the symptom scale indicate a high rate of symptomatology/problems (Fayers et al. 2001).

Meaning sub-dimension (Items 2,3,5,8) has a total score of 0-16 points, Peace sub-dimension (Items 1,4,6,7) has a total score of 0-16 points, Belief sub-dimension (Items 9,10,11) ,12) total score ranges from 0-16 points, and the total score of the scale is 0-48 points. A higher scale score indicates better spiritual well-being.

Study title	NCT ID	Conditions	Interventions	Eligibility	Organization	Link
Effect of Laughter Therapy on Perceived Stress and Quality of Life	NCT05391373	Laughter Therap...	Laughter therap...	18 Years -	Izmir Bakircay University
The Effect of Laughter and Mindfulness Therapy Applications on Women With Breast Cancer Receiving Chemotherapy: Randomized Controlled Study	NCT06116812	Breast Cancer Laughter Therap... Mindfulness The... Life Quality Anxiety and Dep... Spiritual Well-...	the laughter th... the mindfulness...	18 Years - 60 Years	Kafkas University

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