Spoon dosing one of the major causes of dosing errors and pediatric poisonings
One of the three major causes of dosing errors and pediatric poisonings is spoon dosing. Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends against using kitchen silverware to dose liquid medicine most persons still use silverware spoons when pouring medicine for themselves and their families.
According to a new study by researchers at Cornell University, using kitchen spoons to measure liquid medication tends to lead to significantly over- or underdosing.
In the Cornell study (undertaken during the cold and flu season), 195 university students (109 men; mean age, 20.1 years) who were recent patients at a university health clinic, were asked to dose 5 mL of cold medicine into a teaspoon (5 mL, 2.7 × 4 cm), a medium-sized tablespoon (15 mL, 4 × 6 cm), and a larger spoon (45 mL, 6 × 9 cm).
After each of these 2 pours, the participants were asked to indicate how confident they felt that they had poured 5 mL (1 = not very confident; 9 = very confident) and how efficacious they believed their poured dose would be (1 = not very effective; 9 = very effective). After they left the room the volume of cold medicine they had poured into each of the 2 spoons was measured.
The study found that the participants dosed 8.4% less than prescribed into the medium-sized spoon and 11.6% more into the larger spoon. The study also found the participants had above-average confidence that their pouring was accurate and believed that the doses they poured into both spoons would be equally effective.
According to the study although the educated participants had poured in a well-lit room after a practice pour, they were unaware of the dosing errors they had made and were confident that they had poured the correct doses in both spoons. Even though the clinical implications of an 8% to 12% dosing error in a 1-tsp serving of medicine may be minimal, the dosing error is likely to accumulate among fatigued patients who are medicating themselves every 4 to 8 hours for several days.
According to marketing economist Brian Wansink, who led the study, since a medicine’s efficacy is often linked to its dose, consumers should use a measuring cap, dosing spoon, measuring dropper or a dosing syringe “rather than assume they can rely on their pouring experience and estimation abilities with tablespoons.”
Koert van Ittersum of Georgia Tech’s College of Management co-authored the study.
Source: http://www.foodpsychology.cornell.edu/medicinespoons.html
January 5, 2010