Perceived changes in psychological and physical symptoms after hospital clown performances in a cancer setting

ABSTRACT

Background: The therapeutic role of humor and hospital clowns has become a focus of interest in recent decades. Most of the research in the area has focused on children; here, we explore the influence of clown performances on adult cancer patients, their companions, and health-care staff.

Methods: Ninety-nine cancer patients and 113 companions were assessed pre- and post-interventions performed by professional clowns; 31 health professionals were asked about the possible influence of the presence of clowns in hospital on their work.

Results: Patients felt that clowning performances helped to reduce their level of psychological symptoms, but not their physical symptoms. Companions reported improvements in all the psychological symptoms explored. Health professionals reported that the presence of clowns in the workplace improved their well-being.

Conclusions: Clowning performances helped to improve psychological functioning in all the populations studied, especially in companions. Adult hospitals should consider promoting clowning interventions to improve general well-being.

KEYWORDS:

• Cancer
• clowning
• hospital clown
• healthcare
• psycho-oncology

Acknowledgments

We thank CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya for institutional support.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by Fundació Nous Cims, Pallapupas, and by Instituto de Salud Carlos III through the project (FIS PI15/01278) Co-funded by European Regional Development Fund. ERDF, “a way to build Europe)//FONDOS FEDER “una manera de hacer Europa”). It is also partially supported by grants from Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer [the Spanish Association Against Cancer] (AECC)-Cataluña. Grup de recerca consolidat: Recerca en serveis sanitaris en càncer.2017SGR00735.