BMJ  2006;332:121 (14 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7533.121-a

Letter

Disappearing teaspoons

Teabags and forks are confounding factors

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Editor—The valuable piece of research by Lim et al will be circulated as urgent reading around my primary care trust, where institutional attrition of teaspoons may be a factor in the ongoing financial crisis for the NHS.1

However, I suggest that the research team consider using a parallel supply of marked "forks" as well as teaspoons and monitor attritional loss again in a more in-depth study across a range of healthcare institutions. In England, where tea drinking often exceeds use of instant coffee in institutions, in the absence of available teaspoons (or clean spoons) tea drinkers will often use a fork to remove the teabag from their cup during the preparation of the beverage. This obviously is not an option available to coffee drinkers; one would therefore suspect that tearooms where coffee drinkers predominate would experience a higher rate of spoon loss. Therefore, a potential confounding factor in the study . . . [Full text of this article]

Alan A Woodall, specialist registrar public health medicine

Telford Primary Care Trust, Somerfield House, Telford TF1 5RY woodall@doctors.org.uk


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Relevant Article

The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an Australian research institute
Megan S C Lim, Margaret E Hellard, and Campbell K Aitken
BMJ 2005 331: 1498-1500. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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