Does Gloved Medical Personnel Scratch Less Often?

Status

Completed

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Observational

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT00425048

Enrollment

Registered

2007-01-22

Start date

2007-01-31

Completion date

2007-12-31

Last updated

2009-02-10

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Equipment Contamination, Health Education, Hygiene

Brief summary

Unconscious touching of a person's own head or neck (for example by scratching) is a frequently observed and completely normal physiological movement pattern in humans, which when done by medical personnel attending a patient poses a high risk of unconscious self-contamination, even of an already disinfected hand, and of subsequent contamination of the patient. However, as compared to an ungloved hand, a gloved hand is felt to be foreign, which could reduce the frequency of self-contact and thus the contamination rate. Wearing protective gloves is highly recommended in medical practice. The purpose of this study is to explore how wearing, or not wearing, protective gloves affects * the frequency of unconscious self-contact * contamination of the gloved/ungloved hand

Interventions

PROCEDUREwearing gloves

Study design

Time perspective

PROSPECTIVE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

18 Years to 30 Years

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

* Medical students working in a simulated OR environment

Countries

Austria

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026