Association of Patient Gender and Satisfaction Scores: A Systemic Review

Abstract

Patient satisfaction surveys can be a large factor in determining physician reimbursement through Medicare’s Merit Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). Numerous publications suggest a scoring bias associated with nonmodifiable patient demographics, such as gender. We performed a systemic review across multiple specialties, including Urology, to determine whether patient satisfaction scores differ by gender. A focused literature search according to PRISMA guidelines was performed from 2007 to the present using the PubMed database. Out of 360 reviewed papers, 26 articles were included for this systemic review, resulting in a total of 216,363 patients. Although women had slightly lower odds of submitting higher patient satisfaction scores than men, the overall summary estimate of the odds ratio was very close to 1, indicating that gender and patient satisfaction have an unlikely association. These findings should alleviate any concern that gender might affect patient satisfaction surveys, and therefore, physician reimbursement.