Correlation between glove use practices and compliance with hand hygiene in a multicenter study with elderly patients.

In a study conducted in 11 health care settings for elderly patients, we demonstrated a significant negative correlation between the proportion of glove use outside any risk of exposure to body fluids and compliance with hand hygiene (P < .02). This result underscores a major limitation of strategies for controlling the spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria that recommend systematic glove use for each contact with carriers or their environment.