Table 1.
Variable definitions and measurements.
| Variables | Definitions | Measurements | |
| Causal effect | |||
|
|
RDDeffect | Differential treatment effect | The causal effects of honorary titles incentives (treatment) in OHCa with RDDb |
| Dependent variable Y | |||
|
|
Patient i (t) | Number of monthly consultations | Number of online consultations (for patients) provided by the physician i in the month t |
|
|
Views i (t) | Number of monthly home page views | Number of online home page views of the physician i in the month t |
| Treatment variable | |||
|
|
D i | Receive honorary title or not | Di=1 indicates physician i was titled as 2017 Good Doctor in OHC, otherwise Di=0 |
| Time periods | |||
|
|
T i | Preaward or postaward period | Ti=0 indicating the period before January 2018 (date of the honorary title), otherwise Ti=0 |
| Covariates | |||
|
|
Contr i (t) | Contribution score | Total online contribution score calculated by OHC for physician i in the month t |
|
|
Thank i (t) | Number of thank you letters | Total number of online thank you letters physician i received in the month t |
|
|
Gift i (t) | Number of virtual gifts | Total number of online virtual gifts physician i received in the month t |
|
|
Article i (t) | Number of articles posted | Number of articles posted by physician i in the month t |
|
|
PRSi (t) | PRSc | Mean of the rating scores by patients for physician i in the month t |
aOHC: online health community.
bRDD: regression discontinuity design effect.
cPRS: physician rating score.