What is the ON IT Movement and what materials has AstraZeneca published supporting its recommendations?
Executive summary
The ON IT Movement is a patient-facing awareness and behavior-change campaign launched by AstraZeneca in partnership with television personality Dr. Phil aimed at encouraging adults with type 2 diabetes to commit to and stick with self-care and prescribed treatment plans; AstraZeneca promoted it through press releases, corporate blog posts and a dedicated website that highlight Dr. Phil’s “6 Rules to Get ON IT” and lifestyle-support resources [1] [2] [3]. Available AstraZeneca materials about the Movement are promotional and educational — pointing people to OnItMovement.com, lifestyle tips, advocacy events and links to existing AstraZeneca diabetes support programs — but the company’s public archive warnings and the absence of peer‑reviewed clinical content in the provided sources limit claims about independent evidence underpinning the Movement’s specific recommendations [4] [1] [5].
1. What the ON IT Movement is and who’s behind it
AstraZeneca positioned the ON IT Movement as an awareness and empowerment campaign for adults living with type 2 diabetes, partnering publicly with Dr. Phil McGraw to leverage his story and reach; press materials describe the initiative as designed to help people “understand the psychology of taking action and sticking to a treatment plan” and to inspire behavioral change [2] [1]. The company presented the campaign as complementary to its existing patient-education resources and support programs, framing ON IT as part of a broader effort to help people adopt healthier diets, exercise habits, and medication adherence [1] [3].
2. The core content AstraZeneca published supporting ON IT’s recommendations
AstraZeneca’s visible outputs in the sources consist mainly of corporate press releases, a PR multimedia release, blog posts authored or endorsed by Dr. Phil describing his involvement and personal experience, and a dedicated campaign website (OnItMovement.com) that the firm used to host Dr. Phil’s “6 Rules to Get ON IT” and practical tools for patients such as healthy recipes, exercise ideas and habit-change tips [2] [1] [3]. Corporate media pages and the U.S. site point users to the Movement as a place to register, learn about resources, and access support programs, rather than to primary clinical studies or new prescribing information [1] [6] [7].
3. Evidence and editorial footprint — what’s present and what’s missing
The provided AstraZeneca assets are promotional and educational in nature: press releases and blog posts emphasize storytelling, advocacy appearances (for example, visits to Capitol Hill) and practical self-management resources, not original clinical trial data or guideline‑level evidence in support of the Movement’s specific behavioral prescriptions [3] [2] [1]. AstraZeneca’s publications portal and Open Innovation pages point to a broader slate of company publications and partner-generated content, but the search results here do not surface peer‑reviewed studies or formal clinical guidance documents directly tied to the ON IT “6 Rules” within the supplied sources [5] [4].
4. Commercial context and potential conflicts to consider
AstraZeneca’s promotional materials explicitly state the Movement complements existing company programs and in at least one mention associates Dr. Phil’s personal regimen with BYDUREON, an AstraZeneca diabetes product — a link that signals both a patient-support intent and a commercial interest in the diabetes space [1]. Corporate archive notices on AstraZeneca sites warn that historical materials may not reflect current medical knowledge, underscoring that campaign content is part of corporate communications rather than clinical guidance [4].
5. Balanced assessment and reporting limits
The ON IT Movement, as documented in AstraZeneca press releases and related blog content, is a branded behavior-change and advocacy campaign leveraging a celebrity spokesperson and a dedicated website to distribute lifestyle and adherence resources; the materials published by AstraZeneca in the provided sources are promotional/educational (press releases, blog posts, campaign web pages) and do not, in these records, include new clinical trial data or formal guideline endorsements to validate the Movement’s recommendations [2] [3] [1] [5]. The reporting here is limited to AstraZeneca’s public communications; absence of external clinical citations in these sources means it is not possible from the supplied material to verify independent evidence for each recommendation or to assess how recommendations align with professional diabetes guidelines.