Estimate how long an outcome persists from post-program measures — drop-off rate, implied duration, and the evidence limit — then grade the result green, amber, or red so a 'sustained impact' claim never runs ahead of the data.
In short: A 'sustained impact' claim needs a measured drop-off rate, not a hopeful adjective. Estimate persistence from your post-program measures — the drop-off rate, the duration it implies, and the point where your evidence runs out — and grade the result green, amber, or red so you never claim durability past the last data you actually have.
Start where post-program follow-ups are linked to the same participants. This walkthrough uses DEMO-03 · Workforce Cohort — Vista Workforce Collaborative, with exit and follow-up waves on persistent IDs. Load your Decision Brief first so persistence is judged against the outcome and standard you'll report.
You are the Sopact Sense Assistant working over the DEMO-03 · Workforce Cohort dataset (clean data + persistent contact IDs). Load my Decision Brief (decision, audience, outcomes, indicators, evidence standard) first, then wait for my task.
The prompt estimates persistence and stops where the evidence stops.
For outcome [OUTCOME] in [POPULATION], estimate persistence from post-program measures: drop-off rate, implied duration, evidence limit. Grade green/amber/red.
Five elements keep the claim honest: the dataset with post-program waves, the drop-off + duration estimate, the evidence limit marking the last point you measured, the rule to don't over-claim beyond that limit, and the grade G/A/R on how well persistence is evidenced.
Run on the Workforce Cohort dataset (DEMO 03) already loaded in Sopact Sense.
GRADE: green | Exit placement | measured at program exit; amber | 6-month drop-off | persistence falls by month six; red | 12-month data | not collected, durability unknown
The grade tells you how far the claim can reach. Green means a solid anchor — the outcome is measured at exit. Amber means decay is visible — a 6-month follow-up shows the outcome dropping off, which you must report rather than smooth over. Red means the claim outruns the data — there's no 12-month measure, so any 'lasting impact' statement past six months is unsupported.
Fix the missing follow-up with the smallest realistic change.
Take the lowest-graded element above and fix it using only what the program could realistically measure. Show the before → after grade and the single indicator/edit that moves it to green.
Produce a branded "missing & incomplete" report and a shareable link.
Create a 'missing & incomplete' report from this analysis in Sopact branding [or paste your website URL / brand guideline to apply your own]. List every element graded amber or red, what is missing, and the one input that fixes each. Lead with the decision this report informs.
Create a shareable link for this report and open it in a new tab.
'Sustained' is a measurement, not a mood. Any sustained-impact claim needs a measured drop-off rate behind it. Without one, you're asserting durability you haven't observed.
Report the decay, don't hide it. A visible 6-month drop-off is honest evidence. Smoothing it into a flat line is the fastest way to lose a reviewer's trust.
State the evidence limit explicitly. Name the last point you measured. Everything past it is unknown, not zero and not sustained.
One follow-up wave changes everything. Adding a single 12-month check converts an over-claim into a defensible duration estimate.
Draft the single follow-up wave that would extend this outcome's evidence limit from 6 to 12 months.
Take repeated post-program measures of the same outcome on the same participants, then estimate the drop-off rate between waves and the duration it implies. Crucially, mark the evidence limit — the last point you actually measured — and don't claim persistence beyond it. A measured decay curve, not a label, is what makes a sustained-impact claim credible.
The evidence limit is the most recent time point at which you collected data on the outcome. Stating it draws a clear line between what you've observed and what you're guessing, so readers know a claim ends at six months if that's where your data ends — rather than assuming the effect continues indefinitely.
Then you can report the outcome at exit but cannot claim it persists — durability is simply unknown, which is a red grade. The fix is to add at least one post-program follow-up wave, such as a 6- or 12-month check, so you can measure drop-off instead of assuming the effect holds.
Open Sopact Sense, paste your program description, and put it to work.
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