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Behavioural science

Adherence and persistence

Whether a treatment is actually taken, for how long, and what changes either.

Where the evidence stands

Roughly a third of US adults starting a GLP-1 drug for obesity were still persistent users after twelve months. Among those also using continuous glucose monitoring, the figure was two thirds. In hypertension, medication de-escalated by protocol and not promptly restored tracked a third more cardiovascular events. This is the gap between what a trial showed and what a population gets, and it is usually larger than the effect being argued about.

Reminders, monitoring, cost, side effects and the number of daily doses all move the figure. None of them moves it far. A treatment nobody takes has an effect of zero, whatever its trial reported.

Trackers

At a glance

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Related drivers

Others we follow in Behavioural science.