Use of Google Analytics to Explore Dissemination Activities for an Online CKD Clinical Pathway: A Retrospective Study.

BACKGROUND

Data on dissemination strategies that generate awareness of clinical pathways for kidney care are limited.

OBJECTIVE

This study reports the application of Google Analytics to describe the reach and use of the Chronic Kidney Disease Pathway (CKD-P) using a multi-faceted dissemination strategy.

DESIGN

The design of this study is a retrospective descriptive study.

SETTING

This study was conducted in Alberta, Canada.

PATIENTS

Individuals who accessed the CKD-P Web site between November 5, 2014, and May 31, 2019.

MEASUREMENTS

Dissemination activities included print, electronic, in-person meetings, and a laboratory prompt. We used Google Analytics over a 5-year period to evaluate the following CKD-P Web site user metrics: number of sessions, pageviews, visit duration, user path, and bounce rate (when an individual visits a single page of the Web site and leaves the Web site without interacting with additional pages).

METHODS

We plotted dissemination activities alongside Web site metrics using control charts and described the data using means and percentages. We performed chi-square test for trends to evaluate year-over-year usage.

RESULTS

There were 83 294 users, 90 805 sessions, and 231 684 pageviews. The overall bounce rate was 45.7%. Each user had an average of 1.5 sessions and a session duration of 2 minutes and 8 seconds. There was a significant positive trend for total annual users ( = .008), new users ( = .009), number of sessions ( = .006), and pageviews per day ( = .016).

LIMITATIONS

We were unable to confirm if users were primary care providers and if word-of-mouth dissemination among providers/researchers drove people to use the CKD-P.

CONCLUSIONS

Google Analytics was a useful and accessible tool for evaluating CKD-P reach and use trends. It was challenging to identify how individual dissemination activities contributed to CKD-P reach; however, repeated dissemination appeared to play a role in increasing CKD-P use.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Not applicable-observational study design.