effect of laughter yoga on mental well-being of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy

Background: it is generally accepted that cancer affects the concept of mental well-being by changing the physical, psychological, spiritual, and social dimensions of the patient's life. laughter yoga as one of the complementary therapies may promote mental well-being in patients undergoing chemotherapy.aim: this study aimed to determine the effect of laughter yoga on the mental well-being of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.method: this randomized controlled trial was conducted on 69 cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy at reza medical center, mashhad, iran, in 2018. the intervention group was subjected to four 20-30 min sessions of laughter yoga prior to chemotherapy. on the other hand, the control group received routine self-care training. the mental well-being scores were measured using the warwick-edinburgh mental well-being scale (wemwbs) before and after the laughter yoga sessions. data were analyzed in spss software (version 20) using an independent t-test, mann-whitney test, wilcoxon test, and repeated measures anova. results: according to the results, the mean age values of the patients were 49.0±9.6 and 45.2±12.6 years in the intervention and control groups, respectively. regarding the independent t-test results, the mean post-test wemwbs score in the intervention group (50.0±8.9) was significantly higher than that in the control group (47.9±10.4, p=0.004). moreover, the repeated measures anova showed a significant increase in the mean post-test wemwbs score in the intervention group (p<0.001). implications for practice: laughter yoga can promote the mental well-being of patients undergoing chemotherapy; therefore, its clinical applications are recommended in this study.