NCT05793710

Effects o Laughing Qigong Program on Psychological Outcomes and the Physiological Immunological Responses

Effects of a 12-week Laughing Qigong Program on Psychological Outcomes and the Physiological Immunological Responses Among Female Breast Cancer Survivors: A Quasi-experimental Nonequivalent Control Group

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 71 (actual)
• Sponsor: National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Laughter programs are safe, affordable, and age-appropriate activities. Few studies have utilized mixed study designs to look at the impact on resilience in and experiences of participants in such activities.

Detailed description

The laughing qigong program is a physical and mental practice program that combines qigong and laughter. It is influenced by Chinese local culture. It emphasizes the transformation of voice, body, and emotional use so that people can experience relaxation and tranquility, and then the transformation of emotions so that physical and mental energy can be released then to achieve balance. Our research has shown that laughter-related psychological interventions have consistent effects on mental health, reducing mood conditions under life stress (Grace, 2013), depressed mood (Hsieh et al., 2015), and cortisol concentration (Grace, 2013). However, there have only been a few studies where similar protocols focused on positive mental states (e.g. resilience, well-being) and the application of laughing in immune function. Therefore, the current quasi-experimental trial was to investigate the effects of the LQP on psychological outcomes (resilience and well-being), mucosal immunity (salivary immunoglobulin A, s-IgA), and immune-inflammatory index (interleukins, IL-6) amongst breast cancer survivors. We hypothesized that (a) experimental group participants would have significantly higher levels of resilience and well-being at baseline (before the test) and post-treatment (post-test) compared to the wait list control group; (b) Compared to the control group on the wait list, experimental group participants will have significant differences in mucosal immunity (s-IgA) and inflammatory index (IL-6) before and after the test; and (c) experimental group membership had a significant effect on psychological outcomes (resilience and well-being) as well as mucosal immunity (s-IgA) and immune-inflammatory indices (IL-6) after a 12-week LQP intervention

Conditions

• Breast Cancer Survivors

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	The principle of laughter plus Qigong	The intervention program include muscle stretching, breathing exercises, and closing exercises. The laughing practice method begins with a warm-up consisting of laughing to stretch the body, yawning, and exerting the voice, and ends with expelling all the "qi" in order to return to natural movements and return to taking care of your body and mind (He et al., 2021). The LQP program meets once a week for 90 minutes and runs for 12 weeks. The program content: the laughter skills were 50-60 minutes, the feedback was 30 minutes, and relaxation was 10 minutes.

Timeline

• Start date: 2013-12-30
• Primary completion: 2014-12-29
• Completion: 2014-12-29
• First posted: 2023-03-31
• Last updated: 2023-03-31

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Taiwan