Table 1.

Description of variables that influence WeChat communication indexes.

Variable name	Description and coding	References
CertificationYear	The initial year of certification of the WSVAa. The coding is listed as follows: 1=never certified, 2=certification during 2014 to 2016, 3=certification in 2017, and 4=certification in 2018	Gan, 2016 [10], Xu et al, 2015 [39], and Zhang, 2015 [40]
HospitalType	The type of hospital. The coding is listed as follows: 1=specialized hospital and 2=comprehensive hospital	Huang et al, 2019 [41], Chen et al, 2009 [42], Tatro et al, 2019 [43], and Plantier et al, 2017 [44]
ReformYear	The year of public hospital reform involvement. The coding is listed as follows: 1=2010, 2=2014, 3=2015, 4=2016, and 5=2017	Lin et al, 2014 [45]
BedNumber	The number of beds per top tertiary hospital	Lin et al, 2014 [45]
TotalVistingNumber	The total number of visiting outpatients and emergency patients in 2017	Fuller et al, 2019 [46]
ActivityIndex	The activity index of the WSVA	Zhao et al, 2017 [9]

^aWSVA: WeChat service account.