The survival time of chocolates on hospital wards: covert observational study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To quantify the consumption of chocolates in a hospital ward environment.

Design

Multicentre, prospective, covert observational study.

Setting

Four wards at three hospitals (where the authors worked) within the United Kingdom.

Participants

Boxes of Quality Street (Nestlé) and Roses (Cadbury) on the ward and anyone eating these chocolates.

Intervention

Observers covertly placed two 350 g boxes of Quality Street and Roses chocolates on each ward (eight boxes were used in the study containing a total of 258 individual chocolates). These boxes were kept under continuous covert surveillance, with the time recorded when each chocolate was eaten.

Main outcome measure

Median survival time of a chocolate.

Results

191 out of 258 (74%) choco

SUBMITTER: Gajendragadkar PR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3898580 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature