Long-term maintenance of smartphone and PDA use in individuals with moderate to severe memory impairment

Abstract

In an earlier paper we described a structured, theory-driven training programme which was administered to 10 individuals with moderate-to-severe memory impairment. All individuals received an errorless-fading-of-cues protocol in the use of personal digital assistants (PDAs) or smartphones (Svoboda, Richards, Leach, & Mertens, 2012) and demonstrated generalisation of acquired skills to day-to-day memory challenges. Maintenance of intervention gains over the long-term is another indicator of successful generalisation. Here we present the maintenance of device use in the same group of individuals 12 to 19 months after programme completion. A within-subject, ABABB multi-case experimental design was used to evaluate the impact of PDA or smartphone use on day-to-day memory functioning at baseline, immediately post-intervention, at return to baseline, and at short-term and long-term follow-up. Results presented here focus predominantly on long-term follow-up. All 10 individuals showed maintenance of gains in day-to-day functioning as quantified across several ecologically valid questionnaire and task-based measures. This was corroborated by family members with whom six of the participants resided. This study further demonstrates the programme's clinical effectiveness in enabling individuals with moderate-to-severe memory impairment to function more independently and with greater confidence up to 19 months following programme completion.

Keywords:

• Technology
• Memory intervention
• Rehabilitation
• Memory impairment
• Amnesia

We would like to thank all the patients and their family members for their participation in this research and for their valuable feedback regarding our memory intervention programme. We would like to thank Angelina Polsinelli, Diana Jovanovski, Ashwini Persaud and Terry Singh for assistance with patient training and Jeff McCarthy for technical assistance during manuscript preparation. We are further grateful to Drs. Kim Edelstein, Sharon Guger, Lesley Ruttan and Prathiba Shammi for providing some of the neuropsychological test scores and to Ruth Brickman for assistance with long-term follow-up assessments.