Tracking your medication is only half the value. The other half is what the numbers tell you afterwards. Most medication apps show you an adherence percentage and stop there, which is a bit like a fitness tracker that only ever shows a single step count. The useful question is not "what is my number" but "where and when do I slip, and what can I change."
This guide explains what each part of your medication insights means in Cadence, how to read it honestly, and what to actually do with it. The Insights dashboard described here is part of Cadence Pro, a one-time purchase that includes a 7-day free trial.
What your adherence rate measures
Your adherence rate is the percentage of scheduled doses you actually took in a given period. If you were scheduled for 60 doses this month and confirmed 54 of them, your adherence rate is 90 percent.
That sounds simple, but two details change how you should read it:
- As-needed (PRN) medications are excluded. A painkiller you only take when you need it has no "scheduled" count, so counting it would be meaningless. Only fixed-schedule medications feed your adherence rate.
- The window matters. A dose taken 20 minutes late is still on time if it falls inside your dose window. Adherence is about whether you took the dose, not whether you hit the exact minute.
A common reference point for most chronic medications is 80 percent or higher, the threshold clinicians often use as a rough line for a regimen working as intended. But the trend matters more than any single number.
Why the trend beats the number
A single percentage hides the story. Two people can both sit at 85 percent: one is steady at 85 every week, the other was at 98 percent and is sliding. The second person has a problem the number alone will not surface.
This is why Cadence shows your recent days as a strip rather than just a headline figure. The last 7 days each get a coloured cell so you can see at a glance whether a dip is a one-off bad day or the start of a pattern. A green run with one amber day is noise. Three amber days in a row is a signal.
If you are early in tracking, treat the number with humility. Adherence over three days is not a trend, it is a sample. Patterns become trustworthy at roughly 90 days of tracking.
Reading the Dose Share chart
The Dose Share chart shows how your taken doses split across your medications, with each medication in its own colour. It answers a different question from your adherence rate: not "how reliable am I" but "what does my regimen actually look like."
It is most useful when you take several medications. If one medication makes up 60 percent of every dose you take, that is the one your routine is really built around, and the one worth protecting first when life gets busy. If you are managing multiple medications, the chart makes the shape of your regimen obvious in a way a list never does.
The chart only appears once at least two medications have contributed doses, because a pie with a single slice tells you nothing.
Perfect days, not streaks
A perfect day is a day on which you took every scheduled dose. Your monthly history counts how many perfect days you had.
Perfect days are deliberately not a streak. A streak punishes you for one bad day by resetting to zero, which on a medication app turns a missed dose into a reason to feel like you have failed. That is the opposite of helpful. Counting perfect days rewards the good days you did have without erasing them the moment you slip. The goal is a steady rhythm, not an unbroken chain.
If you want to build that rhythm in the first place, see our guide on building a medication habit.
Finding the doses you miss most
Your monthly history surfaces your most-missed pattern: the weekday and the time of day you slip most often. This is usually the single most actionable insight in the whole app.
Missed doses are rarely random. They cluster around the seams in your day:
- Evening doses are missed more than morning ones, because evenings are less routine than the wake-up-and-coffee block.
- Weekend doses are missed more than weekday ones, because the alarm and the commute that anchor your weekday are gone.
- The second dose of a twice-daily medication is missed more than the first.
Once you know your weak spot, you can attach the dose to something that already happens reliably at that time, which is the core of how to remember to take medication.
The month history calendar
The Dose History calendar lets you move month by month and see every day coloured by how complete it was. Tap any day to open its detail and see exactly which doses were taken, skipped or missed, and at what time.
Read it in two passes. First, scan the colours for shape: are the gaps spread evenly, or clustered in one week (a holiday, an illness, a stretch of travel)? Second, tap into the days that look wrong to see what actually happened. A run of missed evening doses during one week often has a simple explanation you had forgotten, and that context is what makes the data trustworthy when you show it to a clinician.
The same view also marks notable events, such as when a medication was added or a dose changed, so a dip lines up with the reason behind it.
The capacity reading
The capacity reading is an observational summary, not medical advice. It combines what you have recently logged, including mood, sleep, symptoms and adherence, into a simple read of how much you seem to have in reserve today: low, moderate or high.
Two things are important about it. It is descriptive, not prescriptive: it reflects what you logged, never tells you to do or avoid anything, and is not a clinical assessment. And it withholds rather than guesses: if you have not logged enough recently, it shows nothing instead of inventing a confident-looking number from thin air.
Treat it as a mirror. If it reads low after a poor week of sleep and high symptom load, that is the data agreeing with how you feel, not a verdict on your day.
Turning insights into one change
Insights are only worth the minute you spend reading them if they change one thing. A simple monthly routine:
- Check the trend, not the number. Is your recent strip steady, improving or sliding?
- Find your most-missed slot. Note the weekday and time you slip most.
- Make one change. Move a reminder, attach the dose to an existing habit, or adjust the dose window if you are marking yourself late unfairly.
- Export before a doctor visit. A clear adherence summary turns "I think I usually take it" into something your clinician can act on. This is why adherence data matters beyond the app itself.
The point of medication insights is not to grade you. It is to show you the two or three places where a small change does the most good, and then get out of the way.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good medication adherence rate?
For most chronic medications, 80 percent or higher is the common reference point clinicians use for a regimen working as intended. But a steady trend matters more than any single figure, and the right target is the one your own clinician sets for your condition.
Why are as-needed medications not counted in my adherence rate?
As-needed (PRN) medications have no fixed schedule, so there is no "scheduled" count to measure against. Counting them would make your adherence rate meaningless, so only fixed-schedule medications are included.
Is counting perfect days better than a streak?
For medication, yes. A streak resets to zero after one missed dose, which turns a single slip into a sense of failure. Counting perfect days rewards the good days without erasing them, which supports a steady rhythm rather than an all-or-nothing chain.
What time of day are medication doses missed most often?
Evening and weekend doses are missed most often, because they fall outside the fixed routines, like the morning alarm and commute, that anchor the rest of the day. The second dose of a twice-daily medication is also missed more than the first.
Is the capacity reading medical advice?
No. The capacity reading is a purely observational summary of what you have logged, such as mood, sleep, symptoms and adherence. It never recommends doing or avoiding anything and is not a clinical assessment.
Cadence is a free medication reminder app for iPhone with unlimited medications and no account required. Insights, Dose Share and monthly history are built in. Cadence Pro is $9.99 as a one-time purchase and adds Apple Health correlations and detailed PDF reports.
