What explains very poor Yelp reviews of oral and maxillofacial surgeons in private practice?

Abstract

Objective: Websites that maintain online physician ratings, such as Yelp.com, have been growing in popularity throughout the United States. The purpose of this study was to determine which factors increase the risk for very poor reviews (1 out of 5 stars) on Yelp.com for oral and maxillofacial surgeons (OMSs) in private practice.

Study design: A retrospective cohort study was conducted using data on OMSs from Yelp.com. Predictor variables included clinician characteristics, practice characteristics, and review characteristics. The primary outcome variable was a very poor review. Logistic regression was used to determine risk factors for a very poor review.

Results: The final sample consisted of 3802 reviews. Relative to male clinicians, female clinicians were 2.7 times (P < .01) more likely to receive a very poor review. Clinicians who completed residency during the 1970s were over 4.5 times (P < .01) more likely to receive a very poor review relative to clinicians who completed residency during the 2010s. Relative to clinical reviews, nonclinical reviews were more likely (odds ratio = 2.6, P < .01) to be very poor and clinical and nonclinical reviews were less likely (odds ration = 0.5, P < .01) to be very poor.

Conclusions: Nonclinical reviews were more likely to be very poor relative to clinical reviews. Several clinician factors, including female sex and completing OMS residency during the 1970s, were risk factors for receiving a very poor review.