"Half of heart disease , for example, is preventable and related to five risk factors-f high cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, obesity and smoking. Although the death toll has steadily declined over the past 30 years due to prevention and treatment measures, heart disease is still the leading cause of death in the U.S., causing one in every four deaths, or 610,000 deaths each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet, about 80% of people reported exposure to at least one of the five risk factors. Getting them to change is a big challenge.
Research like this is giving us a better understanding of patient psychographics and what makes them tick, particulary when it comes to changing their behavior. Giving people data alone does not change behavior. For information to be effective , they need the tools to change and the motivation to do so. Until then, throwing data at doctors and patients might be an interesting way to try to make a few bucks, but it's unlikely to improve outcomes."
Sick care and disease prevention has become one big data management exercise. Patients are data sets and doctors are data managers. In addition, in the gap between the data and the doctor, are many others including data scientists, navigators, care coordinators, and, of course, the payers.intervention has to change but, in order for any of this to do any good, there needs to be an intervention based on identified risk factors and that behavior.
Reading information taken from data does not extrapolate to changes in behavior. It is that last mile that resists change.
If you took the time to take the test, you will get some understanding of why it's so hard to change human behavior and habits and why people don't. Simply put, we're all built differently, were brought up differently and have different approaches to changing our habits
Gretchen Rubin is the author of several books, including the blockbusterNew York Timesbestsellers, Better Than Before, The Happiness Project and Happier at Home.
Gretchen Rubin is the author of several books, including the blockbusterNew York Timesbestsellers, Better Than Before, The Happiness Project and Happier at Home.
Better than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives, Gretchen Rubin realized that all of us differ dramatically in our attitude towards habits, and our aptitude for forming them. She described four distinct groups:Upholders, Questioners, Obligers, and Rebels.
Many thanks to Arlen Meyers, M.D. M.B.A. and Gretchen Rubin who produced most of the content posted here.
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