Thai Surgeon Tests KFC Superstition in Hospital Study

A long-standing superstition among medical professionals in Thailand has prompted a surgeon to investigate whether eating Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) during hospital shifts is associated with heavier workloads. Thanat Tantinam, a 35-year-old colorectal surgeon, conducted a randomized controlled trial with colleagues to examine the belief.

The superstition holds that doctors who eat KFC while working will experience exceptionally busy shifts. The belief has circulated among Thai doctors for approximately a decade, dating back to Tantinam's medical school years.

According to The New York Times, the study involved 345 surgical shifts between 2023 and 2024 at Phatthalung Hospital in southern Thailand, where Tantinam was employed at the time.

Researchers divided participating surgeons into three groups to compare their experiences during surgical shifts. One group ate KFC, another consumed food from Five Star Chicken, a local food brand, and the third group ate nothing.

The research examined several measures of surgical workload, including the number of cases handled during shifts and estimated blood loss among patients. The randomized design allowed the researchers to compare these measures across the three groups.

Tantinam explained that the belief carries considerable weight in some Thai hospitals, where bringing the fast-food chain's products into the workplace can provoke negative reactions from colleagues.

"It's a serious superstition in some hospitals. Your colleagues might be mad if you bring KFC," said Dr. Thanat Tantinam, a colorectal surgeon.

The surgeon said the belief had been familiar to him since his medical training approximately a decade earlier. Its persistence among hospital colleagues eventually became the subject of his research.

The available report does not provide the study's results or establish whether eating KFC affected surgical workloads.