The effects of laughter therapy in reducing the anxiety of preoperative patients who will undergo major surgery / Chrisse Albbi Therese S. Aquino, Mariane Mae D., Margarette G. Boado, Lady Karina F. Bretana, James Matthew A. De Vera, Ma. Patricia Camille M. Estocapio, Mark Lester N. Golle, Finela Claudine D. Laluces, Catherine R. Sayong, James Patrick J. Tadeo, Maria Verone B. Tanteo

The research focused on the effects of laughter therapy in reducing the anxiety of preoperative patients who will undergo major surgeries through parameters adapted by the researchers from the Burns Anxiety Scale, specifically: anxiety thoughts, anxiety feelings, and physical symptoms. A quantitative method-quasi experimental design was used as the research design and non-probability sampling-purposive and convenience sampling-was utilized to select samples. The researchers had 80 preoperative patients. Both groups: control and experimental subjects, were asked to answer the adapted and developed questionnaire to obtain the data related to the anxiety they were feeling preoperatively. Results were tabulated, analysed and integrated. Results showed that there were downward differences in the anxiety parameters of both control and experimental groups in terms of their level of anxiety (mean difference = 0.48), anxiety feelings (mean difference = 0.79), anxiety thoughts (mean difference = 0.38) and physical symptoms mean difference = 0.28), with the experimental group who received laughter therapy having the lower anxiety parameter scores. This led to the conclusion that preoperative anxiety can be relieved through laughter therapy. Laughter therapy should be promoted and introduced to the health care delivery system, especially to preoperative patients. The nurses, whose role is to provide holistic care, should utilize laughter therapy so long as it is not contraindicated and should set reduction of anxiety as a supportive priority. The nursing and health care profession, on the other hand, should promulgate, support and introduce laughter therapy in local and international institutions. Future researchers in lieu with laughter therapy should consider other variables that were otherwise unused in the evaluation of laughter therapy and its effects on anxiety in this research.

General Education.