Prospective Memory in Mobile: Using Smartphone-Based Calendars to Rehabilitate Prospective Memory in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease.

Abstract

Introduction: The rapid growth of mobile phone use and internet access among older adults can provide valuable opportunities for clinicians and researchers to incorporate these technologies into the memory rehabilitation of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Building on this opportunity, previous research has used smartphone calendar applications to cue prospective memory in patients with AD. However, in these studies, the calendar has been programmed to send cues only about the time of prospective events.

Method: We investigated the benefits of the smartphone calendar applications sending notifications about both the time and location of the prospective events. We recruited two groups. In the first group (time-and-location-cued group), we configured smartphone-based calendars to send notifications about the time and location of prospective events, while in the second group (time-cued group), we configured smartphone-based calendars to send notifications only about the time of prospective events. In both groups, we invited patients to attend three prospective events per week during a three-week period.

Results: The results demonstrated fewer omissions in the time- and location-cued group than in the time-cued group.

Conclusion: Providing patients with AD with several contextual cues through smartphone-based calendars may result in better prospective performance than providing them with only one contextual cue.