Laughter therapy is a non-invasive and non-pharmacological complementary medicine technique.
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This is the first study in which laughter yoga with a pretest-posttest control group was conducted online.
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Laughter therapy can be applied online for students' mental health.
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Laughter therapy reduced depression during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Laughter therapy can be integrated into nursing education.
Abstract
Background
Nursing students experienced mental symptoms when they switched to distance education due to the pandemic.
Aims
This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of online laughter therapy sessions on depression, anxiety, stress, and loneliness levels in first-year nursing students.
Methods
In this randomized controlled trial, 61 healthy nursing students were randomly assigned to intervention (n = 32) and control groups (n = 29). The intervention group received online laughter therapy twice weekly for four weeks. The control group received no intervention. The data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, and the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale at the study initiation and week four in both groups.
Results
There was no difference between the mean scores of the groups in the pre-test (p > 0.05). There was a statistically significant difference between groups in terms of depression after online laughter therapy sessions (p < 0.05), but there was no significant difference between anxiety, stress, and loneliness levels (p > 0.05).
Conclusions
Online laughter therapy sessions significantly reduced depression but had no effect on anxiety, stress, and loneliness. During the COVID-19 pandemic, online laughter therapy can be organized to reduce depression levels.