Abstract

One of the greatest challenges to lifestyle medicine is patient adherence. Lifestyle diseases inherently require lifetime prevention and treatment. Therefore, adherence to lifestyle medicine recommendations must also be long-term. Long-term adherence implies that a routine incorporating health recommendations has been developed. Instead of focusing on the immediacy of adherence in lifestyle changes, health care providers could consider helping patients develop a routine to slowly incorporate those changes. This perspective may enable greater long-term adherence to lifestyle change recommendations.