Impact of improving glove usage on the hand hygiene compliance

We assessed the impact of improving glove using on the hand hygiene (HH) compliance in a multicenter study including 9 chronic care settings. If gloves had been used correctly during the evaluation, the overall compliance with HH measured after contacts with patients or environment would have only increased from 66.3% to 68.7%. This weak impact suggests that improving glove usage is not in itself an alternative strategy to improve HH compliance.