title: Stop spoon dosing: milliliter instructions reduce inclination to spoon dosing.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Does the use of teaspoon units in dose recommendations on Drug Facts panels of liquid medicine lead to dosing errors and could any such errors be reduced if millimeter units were used instead?
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants given dosing instructions in teaspoon units were twice as likely to choose a kitchen teaspoon as those given instructions in milliliter units (31.3 vs. 15.4%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that spoon usage--and the inherent risk of dosage errors--could be reduced by more than 50% simply by changing the units of measurement given in dosing instructions.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen, Nettelbosje 2, 9747 AE, Groningen, The Netherlands. k.van.ittersum@rug.nl.
authors.forename: Koert
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: van Ittersum
authors.affiliation: Cornell University, 15 Warren Hall Ithaca, Ithaca, NY, 14853-7801, USA. fblsubmissions@cornell.edu.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wansink
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000293:Adolescent; D004304:Dosage Forms; D054796:Drug Dosage Calculations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D014894:Weights and Measures; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D004304:Dosage Forms