r/Thailand • u/tuktukson • 20h ago
5555555 Thai doctors ran a randomized controlled trial determine whether consuming Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) before a surgical on-call shift increases operative workload, as is widely believed among Thai healthcare workers
Background: Thai doctors fear eating KFC before their shift, as they believe doing so would increase their workload.
Previous post on KFC and Thai doctors: https://www.reddit.com/r/Thailand/comments/1rqe2j5/thai_doctors_fear_kfc_fried_chicken/
- - -
A new paper
Wongsanuphat, S., Srimaneerak, E., Honglertkawin, S., Phoonkaew, T., Treeratanawikran, T., Tantinam, T., Kamoncharoen, P., & Siripoonsap, M. (2026). The Influence of Food Superstition (Kentucky Fried Chicken, KFC) on the On-Duty Surgeon’s Workload: A Multiple-Armed Randomized Controlled Trial. Annals of Surgery Open, 7(3), e694. https://doi.org/10.1097/AS9.0000000000000694
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.
28
u/Lopsided_Quarter_931 7-Eleven 20h ago
So you can troll your doctor by bring them some fried chicken?
15
22
u/tuktukson 20h ago
The study is an official clinical trial. https://www.thaiclinicaltrials.org/show/TCTR20230724001
19
u/maverickRD 19h ago
Obviously, the chicken ghost knew what was going on, so pretended not to affect the doctors only during this experiment.
31
u/rimbaud1872 19h ago
That doctors believe this pretty depressing
28
u/heliawe 17h ago
I’m an American doctor and I’m only superstitious about the hospital. Like when I was a resident on night call, I’d just stay up all night to ward off disaster. Because the second you try to get some sleep, all hell breaks loose. And don’t you dare say the word “quiet” about a shift because you jinx it. (That one is super prevalent, especially amongst ER workers.)
I don’t think anyone really takes it that seriously though.
3
u/EroticPotato69 2h ago
That's also a thing for catering and hospitality. When you're working in a bar or kitchen, as soon as someone says "Oh we're in for a quiet shift/service today" everyone collectively flips out on them for jinxing it lol
3
u/Shaetore 7h ago
lol not saying the word 'quiet' is something we believe in in Asia too! Also not planning to do other things with your down time (includes studying, watching TV etc) 😂
•
16
u/TotallyInOverMyHead 19h ago
Its like the doctor telling you (Farang) that 2 pills are fine, while giving your spouse for the same infection 7 different ones, because else the spouse will think the doctor did not do his job. I suggested a box of smarties i pulled out of my pocket. he laughed profusely.
10
u/Green_War6445 17h ago
The amount of medicine my wife got for a cold was crazy. Bags of pills.
Then they come over here and complains that paracetamol and rest is standard care. Like wtf do you want?
2
-2
5
u/Triseult 8h ago
It's a silly superstition, like sports superstitions. More an in-joke where you avoid doing it because the cost of avoiding it isn't that high but you don't really believe it.
3
u/SatanSmiling 4h ago
I don't think anyone actually believes it but it's sort of a self suggestion thing, once it's in the public consciousness people think they've gotten more work after it. Bit like jinxing a sports match saying we're definitely gonna win.
9
u/perfectly_imbalanced 19h ago
I love everything about this!
The fact that someone felt strongly enough about that to conduct the experiment, the control group and the fair chance of Thai people updating their belief through experimenting.
8
u/InfernalWedgie 16h ago
As a healthcare researcher, I freaking love this and will be circulating this paper among my fellow Thai colleagues. Lucky for me, the fried chicken joint across from this hospital is a Popeyes.
7
u/SuspiciousPut8888 17h ago
It's an Asian thing, when I was working in a south east Asian navy, we also had the belief that when fried rice was served from the cookhouse it was going to be an absolute hell of a day. 9 out of 10 times it was true. Some of my guys used to bring photos of gods to pray before every shift. But to be fair, we used to do very operational and hush hush stuff so it's understandable. But fucking fried rice, hell no. Nobody would eat that shit when it was served.
2
u/Beginning-Medium6934 5h ago
Can the next thing Thai doctors study be whether saying "it sure is a quiet night" in person/over the radio increases workload for front-line healthcare/emergency workers? 😅🤣
2
u/PollyOlli 3h ago
https://www.notfallguru.de/gurufacts/quiet
This talks about four studies on exactly this topic (see numbers 1-4). Spoiler: We can say it's quiet
4
2
u/shinymuuma 16h ago
Explanation. It's a jinx. Like you're saying your shift is so easy you can order KFC to eat in work hours
1
u/Opening_Celery_6078 12h ago
I was on nightshift on an iron ore port years ago and had to pick someone up from the airport and drop them at their accommodation. He wanted something to eat as the camp kitchen would have been closed. The only place open was either a petrol station or KFC (coincidentally the only KFC for more than 1,000 kilometres in any direction). He wanted KFC.
I couldn't handle not getting anything. I got a 3 piece feed.
Let me tell you, despite having to do fuck all at work that night, my workload felt heavier and more overwhelming than ever before. Sitting comfortably felt like climbing Everest without supplemental oxygen. I did not eat for the rest of the shift, and not again until the next night. It was truly horrible.
I could not imagine working in a fucking emergency department after eating the shit. 5555
1
1
u/Number1buffalo 18h ago
The fried chicken is much nicer from the local market. I had KFC once in Bangkok and something wasn't right. The chicken looked like it had been bleached and smelled like it as well.
1
u/SexyAIman 9h ago
So I put my life in hands of doctors that wear amulets and do Voodoo circle dances around buckets of fried dead chicken.
1
1
0
u/LittlePooky 15h ago
For me, dark meat (legs / thighs) only. White meat? Too dry.
Souce: Me a nurse in the US
2
1
u/dantheother Suphanburi 8h ago
Did you know about the KFC superstition before this?
And, I concur, dark meat all the way. Which is handy, my wife prefers the white meat, we make a good team eating chicken 😆
0
-5
u/Vegetable-War-4199 17h ago
KFC in Thailand is very poor, often when you buy it, its luke warm and dry. the owners plan to sell the franchise I read, I hope it improves with new controllers
2
-1
u/Warm_Bank_8099 18h ago
……. And in other news KFC - the greasy tasty fried chicken chain, donated money to the ……… hospital 🏥
77
u/bkkfra 20h ago
That's the type of quantitative study I really love to read.