Web Visit Patterns for the Clinical Practice Guidelines for Management of Depressive Disorder and Alcohol Abuse-Dependence

Introduction Clinical practice guidelines (CPG) are a set of recommendations for professionals, patients, and families, in order to make decisions about health care. The CPG respond to the need for concise, accurate, practical, and up to date information. In the field of mental health, Colombia has developed three GPC; alcohol (GPC-OH), depression (GPC-TDA), and schizophrenia. Objectives To describe the Web Portal traffic related to psychiatry guidelines, with emphasis on the number of visits, distribution throughout Colombian cities, and estimating user behaviour patterns. Methods An evaluation was made of the traffic at the Clinical Practice Guidelines Web Portal of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection between 2013 and 2015 (two years of observation since the inauguration of the Portal). Results Out of the 45 GPC published on the website, the CPG-OH represented 1.21% of all page views of the Portal. CPG-TDA reached 1.52% (accumulated percentage of 2.73%), being the eighth most consulted guideline, with CPG-OH being number 16. The highest mean monthly number of visits for this group of guideliness was for the CPG-OH for health professionals (353 visits/month), and the lowest was for the CPG-AD for patients and relatives (24 single visits/month). Bogotá D.C. was the city where health carers accessed the guidelines more often. The guidelines for patients and relatives were consulted more in Villavicencio, Cúcuta, Manizales, Pereira, and Pasto. Conclusions The web portal partially fulfills the purpose of circulating the CPG in Colombia. The visits to the CPG of mental health is quite low, and requires better dissemination strategies that allow the use of information and communication technology.