The Effect of Laughter Therapy On The Food Craving

Overview

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is characterized by physical, emotional, and behavioral symptoms in the luteal phase that significantly disrupt women's daily lives, including work and personal activities, and resolve spontaneously within a few days of the onset of menstruation. The premenstrual syndrome causes emotional eating, excessive consumption of certain foods, and increased appetite. These unhealthy eating patterns in eating behavior affect health negatively. Women with PMS have an increased appetite and food cravings. It has been stated that the increase in appetite and food cravings are reduced by laughter therapy. Thus, the laughter therapy method, which has no side effects in PMS and negative eating behaviors, can be used and recommended or applied by health professionals.

The universe of the research will be all young women with PMS who study at the designated Faculty of Health Sciences in the Spring semester of the 2022-2023 academic year. The sample of the study will be all young women studying at the Faculty of Health Sciences, meeting the inclusion criteria and agreeing to participate in the study. All young women with a Premenstrual Syndrome Scale total score of 110 and above will be included in the study. Since all women who have a Premenstrual Syndrome Diagnostic Scale of 110 and above, volunteer to participate in the study, and meet the inclusion criteria will be included in the study, no additional sample selection will be made. The application and control group will be determined on random.org among the group that constitutes the sample of the study. Laughter therapy sessions will be applied online for 25-30 minutes once a week for 2 months by the researcher who has the Laughter therapy certificate to the application group. At the end of two months, the Personal Information Form, Premenstrual Syndrome Scale, and the Food Craving Scale will be administered again to both the application group and the control group.