Identifying Optimal Chronic Kidney Disease Patient Education Web Sites: Assessing E-Health Technology by Content Area Experts

One in nine adults in the United States has chronic kidney disease (CKD). Randomized studies show electronic health (e-health) systems improve health outcomes in chronic disease. This study describes a systematic evaluation of available CKD Web sites. We evaluated Web sites for educating patients with CKD, focusing on three specific design issues: usability, quality, and content. Thirty Web sites were evaluated between April and July 2004. Cohen’s kappa and intraclass correlation of quartile rankings for two independent evaluators were calculated. Mean score for evaluator 1 was 7.293 (standard error 0.511) and for evaluator 2 was 8.189 (0.413). Cohen’s kappa for the 2 evaluators’ total scores for all 30 Web sites is 0.7671, and intraclass correlation is 0.7703. In general, results show that it is possible to identify Web sites more likely to provide a positive educational experience for CKD patients. Further evaluation is needed to investigate the utility of variably ranked Web sites as educational interventions.