The Effect of Laughter Yoga on Preoperative Anxiety in Pediatric Patients

Children and their parents who meet the inclusion criteria will be informed about the study content; written informed consent will be obtained from the parents and verbal assent from the children prior to participation. The study will be conducted with two separate groups: a control group receiving routine preoperative care and an intervention group practicing laughter yoga. To ensure balance, groups will be formed using day randomization while considering age criteria. Prior to the study, the researcher completed a laughter yoga course and obtained an "Internationally Accredited Laughter Yoga Leadership Training" certificate. The nurse researcher administering the pre-tests and post-tests will be blinded to whether laughter yoga was applied to the groups. In the intervention group, children brought to the preoperative area one hour early (per routine) will receive a pre-test from the blinded nurse researcher, followed by a 30-minute laughter yoga session led by the researcher, and a post-test administered approximately 10 minutes thereafter. For the control group receiving routine care, the pre-test will be administered, and the post-test will be performed after a 30-minute waiting period.Surgical anxiety disorder was categorized according to the modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale (m-YPAS )performance score out of 40, as stated in the report prepared by Hatipoğlu et al. (2019); scores above 40 were considered high anxiety, and scores below 40 were considered low anxiety. The minimum score that can be obtained is 22.9 and the maximum score is 100.

Inclusion criteria

• Speaking Turkish
• Having American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) I and II certifications
• Planned as an elective operation
• Children aged 5-12 undergoing their first surgery
• Having no chronic illnesses

Exclusion criteria

• Children with accompanying chronic illnesses and/or psychological disorders
• Children with health problems that prevent them from doing laughter yoga (urinary incontinence, persistent cough, etc.)
• Parents and children who refuse to participate in the study.