Laughter and Stress Relief in Cancer Patients: A Pilot Study

Table 1

Baseline characteristics of intention-to-treat population of two groups.

Characteristics	Subtotal	Experimental group ()	Control group ()	value
		(%)	(%)
Age (years)
<40	13	9 (29%)	4 (14%)	0.38^b
40–49	23	12 (39%)	11 (38%)
50–59	17	8 (26%)	9 (31%)
≥60	6	2 (6%)	5 (17%)
Marital status
Yes	50	22 (71%)	28 (97%)	0.01^b
No	10	9 (29%)	1 (3%)
Education level
≤Middle school	8	3 (38%)	5 (63%)	0.35^a
High school	24	15 (63%)	9 (38%)
≥College	28	13 (46%)	15 (54%)
Cancer stage
0	4	2 (7%)	2 (7%)	0.83^b
I	25	11 (36%)	14 (48%)
II	21	12 (39%)	9 (31%)
III	10	6 (19%)	4 (14%)
Operation
Breast conserving operation	53	28 (90%)	25 (86%)	0.70^b
Mastectomy	7	3 (10%)	4 (14%)
Past treatment
Operation	29	18 (29%)	11 (38%)	0.12^a
Operation and chemotherapy	31	13 (71%)	18 (62%)
Current cotreatment
None	14	9 (29%)	5 (17%)	0.28^b
Hormone therapy	46	22 (71%)	24 (83%)

values were calculated by (a) Chi² test and (b) Fisher’s exact test.