Effect of Laughter Yoga on Nursing Students

The Effect of Laughter Yoga on Nursing Students' Well-Being, Perceived Stress and Academic Self-Efficacy: A Randomised Controlled Study

Nursing students experience different levels of stress due to many reasons such as lifestyle, health, academic performance, competition, choice of profession, new living environment, relationships with peer group and expectations of parents. It is important to develop different coping behaviours/strategies to manage stressful situations. Laughter yoga has proven positive effects on physical and mental health.

The aim of this randomised controlled trial was to examine the effects of laughter yoga on well-being, perceived stress and academic self-efficacy of nursing students.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Stress; Laughter; Well-Being, Psychological
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Laugther Yoga

Detailed Description

Laughter yoga, which is a combination of laughter and yoga with breathing techniques, is among traditional and complementary medicine practices. Based on the view that the brain cannot distinguish between real and unreal laughter, laughter yoga aims to benefit from the mental and physical benefits of laughter. Laughter yoga has benefits such as reducing stress and depression symptoms, relaxing muscle tone, increasing blood circulation, lowering blood pressure, increasing melatonin and growth hormone release, increasing pain threshold, strengthening the immune system.

Laughter yoga will be applied to the intervention group in 6 sessions (45 minutes each session). Well-being, Perceived Stress and Academic Self-Efficacy levels of the students will be evaluated before and after the intervention.

Hypotheses of the study; H1: The well-being level of the intervention group increases after laughter yoga.

H2: The academic self-efficacy level of the intervention group increases after laughter yoga.

H3: Perceived stress level of the intervention group decreases after laughter yoga.

H4: The well-being level of the intervention group after laughter yoga is higher than the control group.

H5: The perceived stress level of the intervention group after laughter yoga is lower than the control group.

H6: The academic self-efficacy level of the intervention group after laughter yoga is higher than the control group.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 80
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Olga İncesu, Dr; Phone Number: +905334942989; Email: olga.incesu@iuc.edu.tr
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Merve Altıner Yaş, Dr; Phone Number: +905056791121; Email: merve.altineryas@iuc.edu.tr

Study Locations

• Turkey
  • Şişli
    • Istanbul, Şişli, Turkey, 34381
      • Recruiting
      • Olga İncesu
      • Contact: Olga İncesu, PhD; Phone Number: +905334942989; Email: olga.incesu@iuc.edu.tr

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• To be a 4th year nursing student,
• Volunteer to participate

Exclusion Criteria:

• To take part in the intern programme,
• Simultaneous participation in any methods of complementary medicine,
• Having undergone surgery within the last three months,
• Having a diagnosis of hernia (hernia)
• Having a diagnosis of epilepsy
• Uncontrolled diabetes and cardiovascular disease

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Laughter yoga group; Laughter yoga will be applied to the intervention group in 6 sessions (45 minutes each session). Laughter yoga consists of four parts. Firstly, it starts with warm-up exercises including hand clapping (applause), singing "ho ho ha ha" to relax the facial muscles of the participants and body movements. Secondly, the lungs are prepared with breathing exercises and the mind is prepared for laughter with childish games. This is followed by laughter exercises. Deep breathing exercises are performed between laughter exercises. Laughter yoga is concluded with clapping, singing and relaxation exercises.	Other: Laugther Yoga; Laughter yoga will be applied to the intervention group in 6 sessions (45 minutes each session).
No Intervention: Control group; No laughter yoga intervention will be applied to the control group.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Well being	The WHO-5 well-being Scale point of the intervention group change laughter yoga.	2 weeks post intervention
Academic self-efficcay	The academic self-efficacy point of the intervention group change after laughter yoga.	2 weeks post intervention
Stress	The perceived stress scale point of the intervention group change after laughter yoga.	2 weeks post intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Istanbul University - Cerrahpasa (IUC)
• Investigators: Study Director: Merve Altıner Yaş, Dr, Dr

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 16, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 29, 2023
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 30, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 29, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 8, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): December 19, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 19, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 8, 2023
• Last Verified: December 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: stress; well-being; laughter yoga; academic self efficacy; undergraudate nursing education
• Other Study ID Numbers: Florence Nightingale Faculty-3

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No