The Influence of Food Superstition (Kentucky Fried Chicken, KFC) on the On-Duty Surgeon's Workload: A Multiple-Armed Randomized Controlled Trial.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether consuming Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) before a surgical on-call shift increases operative workload, as is widely believed among Thai healthcare workers.

DESIGN

Three-arm randomized controlled trial.

SETTING

General surgery department, Phatthalung Hospital, July 2023-June 2024.

PARTICIPANTS

Five general surgeons contributing 345 duty shifts; 313 shifts formed the primary analysis (Control 107, KFC 101, Five Star 105) after excluding 32 resident-present shifts.

INTERVENTIONS: Shifts were randomly allocated (permuted blocks, allocation concealment) to Control (no intervention), KFC, or Five Star brand fried chicken.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcomes: total workload (cases per shift), number of operations, and number of consultations. Secondary outcomes: estimated blood loss and operative time. Exploratory outcome: surgeon belief score change before and after trial completion.

RESULTS

No primary outcome differed significantly between arms. Median total workload was 14 (IQR 11-17), 16 (IQR 12-19), and 14 (IQR 11-17) cases per shift for Control, KFC, and Five Star arms, respectively (P = 0.22). Operations (P = 0.71), estimated blood loss (P = 0.86), and operative time (P = 0.55) were similarly nonsignificant. A borderline overall difference in consultations (P = 0.046) was not attributable to either active arm versus Control on post hoc testing. Linear mixed-effects modeling confirmed no arm effect on any outcome after adjusting for surgeon, duty type, and resident presence. Belief scores declined significantly after trial completion (P = 0.037).

CONCLUSIONS

KFC consumption does not increase surgical on-call workload. The significant decline in surgeon belief scores suggests that structured self-experimentation may effectively challenge culturally embedded superstitions in clinical practice.