Directed use of the internet for health information by patients with chronic kidney disease: prospective cohort study.
BACKGROUND
Health information technology has become common in the care of patients with chronic diseases; however, there are few such applications employed in kidney disease.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was to evaluate the use of a website providing disease-specific safety information by patients with predialysis chronic kidney disease.


METHODS
As part of the Safe Kidney Care (SKC) study, an educational website was designed to provide information on safety concerns in chronic kidney disease. Phase I study participants were provided a medical alert accessory with a unique ID number, the Safe Kidney Care website, and an in-person tutorial on the use of the Internet and accessing the SKC website at baseline. Participants were asked to visit the website and enter their unique ID as frequently as they desired over the next 365 days or until their annual follow-up visit, whichever occurred first. Participants' visits and dwell times on specific safety modules were tracked using embedded webpage PHP scripts linked to a MySQL database, enabling the collection of website usage statistics.


RESULTS
Of 108 Phase I participants, 28.7% (31/108) visited the website from 1-6 times during the observation period (median follow-up 365 days). Median access time was 7 minutes per visit (range <1-46) and 13 minutes per person (range <1-123). The three most frequently visited pages were "Renal function calculator", "Pills to avoid", and "Foods to avoid". High school education and frequent Internet use were significantly associated with website entry (P=.02 and P=.03, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
Preliminary results show general interest in a Web-based platform designed to improve patient safety in chronic kidney disease.


BACKGROUND
Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01407367; http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT01407367 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6KvxFKA6M).
Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States. cdiamantidis@medicine.umaryland.edu.
Clarissa Jonas
CJ
Diamantidis
Wanda
W
Fink
Shiming
S
Yang
Marni R
MR
Zuckerman
Jennifer
J
Ginsberg
Peter
P
Hu
Yan
Y
Xiao
Jeffrey C
JC
Fink
D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D011446:Prospective Studies
chronic kidney disease; health information technology; patient safety