Laughter yoga as an enjoyable therapeutic approach for glycemic control in individuals with type 2 diabetes: A randomized controlled trial

Mayumi Hirosaki; Tetsuya Ohira; Yawei Wu; Eri Eguchi; Kokoro Shirai; Hironori Imano; Narumi Funakubo; Hitoshi Nishizawa; Naoto Katakami; Iichiro Shimomura; Hiroyasu Iso

doi:10.3389/fendo.2023.1148468

Laughter yoga as an enjoyable therapeutic approach for glycemic control in individuals with type 2 diabetes: A randomized controlled trial

Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2023 Mar 31:14:1148468. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1148468. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Mayumi Hirosaki^{1

2}, Tetsuya Ohira¹, Yawei Wu³, Eri Eguchi¹, Kokoro Shirai³, Hironori Imano^{3

4}, Narumi Funakubo¹, Hitoshi Nishizawa⁵, Naoto Katakami⁵, Iichiro Shimomura⁵, Hiroyasu Iso³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima, Japan.
² Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
³ Public Health, Department of Social Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
⁴ Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Kindai University, Osaka, Japan.
⁵ Department of Metabolic Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.

Abstract

Background: Laughter has been reported to have various health benefits. However, data on the long-term effects of laughter interventions on diabetes are limited. This study aimed to investigate whether laughter yoga can improve glycemic control among individuals with type 2 diabetes.

Methods: In a single-center, randomized controlled trial, 42 participants with type 2 diabetes were randomly assigned to either the intervention or the control group. The intervention consisted of a 12-week laughter yoga program. Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), body weight, waist circumference, psychological factors, and sleep duration were evaluated at baseline and week 12.

Results: Intention-to-treat analysis showed that participants in the laughter yoga group experienced significant improvements in HbA1c levels (between-group difference: -0.31%; 95% CI -0.54, -0.09) and positive affect scores (between-group difference: 0.62 points; 95% CI 0.003, 1.23). Sleep duration tended to increase in the laughter yoga group with a between-group difference of 0.4 hours (95% CI -0.05, 0.86; P = 0.080). The mean attendance rate for laughter yoga program was high (92.9%).

Conclusions: A 12-week laughter yoga program is feasible for individuals with type 2 diabetes and improves glycemic control. These findings suggest that having fun could be a self-care intervention. Further studies with larger numbers of participants are warranted to better evaluate the effects of laughter yoga.

Clinical trial registration: http://www.chinadrugtrials.org.cn, identifier UMIN000047164.

Keywords: glycemic control; laughter; laughter yoga; positive affect; self-care; type 2 diabetes.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Body Weight
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2* / therapy
Glycated Hemoglobin
Glycemic Control
Humans
Laughter Therapy*

Substances

Glycated Hemoglobin

Associated data

UMIN-CTR/UMIN000047164

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Health Science Research Fund by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (H25-Junkanki-Ippan008) and the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development under Standard Agreement (15ek0210003h00031 and 22rea522104h0001) and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI under Grant Agreement Nos. 18K19688, 19H03901, and 20K21719.