Laughter Yoga, Stress Level and Burnout Level

'The Effect of Laughter Yoga on Midwives' Perceived Stress Level and Burnout Level: Randomized Controlled Study'

The positive interaction between personal and business life results in the health of the healthcare personnel and the success of the institution. Burnout, which occurs as a result of a crisis in an individual's working life, manifests itself as fatigue, lack of energy, feeling inadequate in the professional role and lack of confidence.

Laughter, which helps people to endure stressful situations or processes, improves a person's problem-solving ability by reducing depression and increasing insight. For this reason, laughter reduces a person's exposure to negative environmental cues and helps them with self-control. Laughter, a positive emotion, appears to be a useful and healthy way to cope with stress. The aim of the research to be conducted is to evaluate the effect of laughter yoga on the stress and burnout levels of midwives.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Stress; Burnout, Psychological; Laughter
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Laughter yoga

Detailed Description

The positive interaction between personal and business life results in the health of the healthcare personnel and the success of the institution.

People who are satisfied with their working environment work more efficiently. High job satisfaction levels of midwives who ensure that newborns, pregnant women and postpartum women, as well as newborns, pregnant women and postpartum mothers, receive quality care will ensure that the service they provide will be of higher quality.

Burnout, which occurs as a result of a crisis in an individual's working life, manifests itself as fatigue, lack of energy, feeling inadequate in the professional role and lack of confidence. This situation, which occurs in the healthcare worker, will negatively affect the quality of patient care as it will cause a regression in the healthcare worker's decision-making process and an increase in medical errors. Laughter, which helps people to endure stressful situations or processes, improves a person's problem-solving ability by reducing depression and increasing insight. For this reason, laughter reduces a person's exposure to negative environmental cues and helps them with self-control. Laughter, a positive emotion, appears to be a useful and healthy way to cope with stress. People gain a positive mood through laughter, and a negative mood, thought or personality can also be changed in a positive way. Laughter therapy, which is used to increase psychosocial behaviors, positively affects the general quality of life.

The aim of the research to be conducted is to evaluate the effect of laughter yoga on the stress and burnout levels of midwives.

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

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: meltem yavuz, midwife; Phone Number: 0 541 953 52 99; Email: meltemy22@outlook.com

Study Locations

• Turkey
  • Kırklareli, Turkey
    • Recruiting
    • Kırklareli University
    • Contact: AYCA SOLT KIRCA, Phd; Phone Number: 05392684185; Email: aycasolt@hotmail.com

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Volunteering to participate in research
• Answering survey and scale forms fully
• Social media accounts, presence in WhatsApp groups
• Ability to read and understand Turkish
• 5 years or more of working life in the profession
• Not having any health problems that would prevent communication
• Working in a maternity ward or gynecology ward
• Scoring 14 or above on the perceived stress scale

Exclusion Criteria:

• Not volunteering to participate in the research
• Answering survey and scale forms incompletely
• Not understanding Turkish
• Less than 5 years of working life in the profession
• Having any health problem that prevents communication
• Working outside the maternity ward or gynecology ward

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 performed in 8 sessions, 2 days a week for 4 weeks. The duration of each session will be 40 minutes. Laughter yoga sessions will be held on a day suitable for all participants and with the participation of at least 8 people. The session will start with warm-up exercises and continue with laughter exercises. People in the group will do these exercises with the guidance of the researcher.	Other: Laughter yoga; Part 1: Deep Breathing Exercises: Raise the arms up towards the sky and take a deep breath as possible and hold the breath for 4-5 seconds. This application is repeated several times. This section takes approximately 5-10 minutes. Part 2: Warm-up exercises: Hands are kept parallel to each other and clapped. The tips of the fingers and palms touch each other, the acupuncture points on both hands are stimulated and the individual's energy level increases. Section 3: Childish Games: In this section there are childish games. These games are visualized in the mind and the participants are asked to raise their arms upwards in the shape of the letter "Y".This section takes approximately 10 minutes. Section 4: Laughter Exercises: Participants are given verbal guidance such as "Put your hand on your heart, feel your heartbeat, let's exhale with a smile, let's make a wish or pray" and the laughter exercise is terminated. This section takes approximately 15 minutes.
No Intervention: Control group; Participants in this group will consist of people who do not routinely do any practice on their own to reduce stress and burnout levels. The researcher will ask the participants via phone 4 times a week for 1 month whether they have taken any action to reduce their stress and burnout symptoms. Participants who use any of the pharmacological or non-pharmacological practices to reduce stress and burnout symptoms will be excluded from the study.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Burnout Scale	Developed by Pines and Aronson (1988) to be used on non-professional groups as well as all professional groups, the TOS consists of twenty-one items prepared as self-report on a seven-point scale to evaluate the physical, emotional and mental exhaustion level of individuals.	between 2 to 4 weeks
Perceived Stress Scale-10	It measures the extent to which situations in a person's life are evaluated as stressful. Scores of 0-13 are considered low stress. Scores between 14 and 26 are considered moderate stress. Scores between 27 and 40 are considered high perceived stress.	between 2 to 4 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
General Health Survey-28	It is a screening test created by the individual to detect mental health problems encountered in society and non-psychiatric clinical environments. A minimum of 0 and a maximum of 28 points can be obtained from the scale. A higher total score increases the likelihood of psychological problems.	between 2 to 4 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Kırklareli University
• Investigators: Study Chair: AYCA SOLT KIRCA, Phd, Kırklareli University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 25, 2024
• Primary Completion (Estimated): June 30, 2025
• Study Completion (Estimated): July 30, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 20, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 20, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): July 25, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 25, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 8, 2025
• Last Verified: January 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: stress; burnout; laughter yoga
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Stress, Psychological; Burnout, Psychological
• Other Study ID Numbers: KırklareliAS-11

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

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