Does online communication mitigate the association between a decrease in face-to-face communication and laughter during the COVID-19 pandemic? A cross-sectional study from JACSIS study

Sakura Kiuchi; Kenji Takeuchi; Taro Kusama; Upul Cooray; Yudai Tamada; Ken Osaka; Takahiro Tabuchi

doi:10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102432

Does online communication mitigate the association between a decrease in face-to-face communication and laughter during the COVID-19 pandemic? A cross-sectional study from JACSIS study

Prev Med Rep. 2023 Sep 21:36:102432. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102432. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Authors

Sakura Kiuchi^{1

2}, Kenji Takeuchi^{2

3}, Taro Kusama^{2

3}, Upul Cooray², Yudai Tamada^{2

4}, Ken Osaka², Takahiro Tabuchi^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Tohoku University, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan.
² Department of International and Community Oral Health, Tohoku University Graduate School of Dentistry, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan.
³ Division of Statistics and Data Science, Liaison Center for Innovative Dentistry, Tohoku University Graduate School of Dentistry, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan.
⁴ Department of Preventive Medicine, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.
⁵ Cancer Control Center, Osaka International Cancer Institute, Osaka, Japan.
⁶ Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

Laughter has a protective effect on human health. The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has changed opportunities for face-to-face communication and might decrease opportunities for laughter. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate whether the decrease in face-to-face communication during the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with a decrease in laughter. Additionally, we investigated whether an increase in online communication mitigates this association. Data from the "Japan COVID-19 and Society Internet Survey (JACSIS)," conducted between August and September 2020, were used. Participants aged 15-79 years were included in this study. The outcome was a decrease in laughter before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The explanatory variables were decreased face-to-face communication with friends and increased online communication (text message, telephone, and video contact). Causal mediation analysis was used to calculate prevalence ratios (PRs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) of the controlled direct effects of increased online communication. Furthermore, the proportions eliminated (PEs) by an increase in online communication were calculated. Among the 25,482 participants, 40.4 % had decreased face-to-face communication and 21.4 % had a decreased frequency of laughter. After adjusting for confounders, a decrease in face-to-face communication was significantly associated with a decrease in laughter (PR = 1.62, 95 %CI = 1.55-1.70). PEs for decrease in laughter were 27.2 % (95 %CI = -2.0 to 56.4) for text-based communication, 36.1 % (95 %CI = 12.3-59.8) for telephone-based communication, and 28.6 % (95 %CI = 0.6-56.6) for video-based communication. Although a decrease in face-to-face communication was associated with a decrease in laughter during the COVID-19 pandemic, online communication, particularly telephone-based communication, mitigated this association.

Keywords: COVID-19; Communication; Digital Technology; Friends; Laughter.