Smartphones have potential as cognitive aids for adults with cognitive impairments. However, little is known about how patients and their care partners utilise smartphones in their day-to-day lives. We collected self-reported smartphone utilisation data from patients referred for neuropsychological evaluations (N = 53), their care partners (N = 44), and an Amazon Mechanical Turk control sample (N = 204). Patient participants were less likely to own a smartphone than controls, with increasing age associated with less utilisation of smartphone features in all groups. Of the patients who owned smartphones, spontaneous use of cognitive aid features (e.g., reminders and calendars) occurred on only a monthly-to-weekly basis; by comparison, patients reported utilising social/general features (e.g., email and internet) on a weekly-to-daily basis. Individuals referred for geriatric cognitive disorder evaluations were less likely to own and use smartphones than individuals referred for other reasons. Care partners reported using their smartphones more frequently than control group adults, with 55% of care partners endorsing utilising their device in caring for the patient. Building upon existing smartphone use habits to increase the use of cognitive aid features may be a feasible intervention for some patients, and including care partners in such interventions is encouraged.

Background A decline in the ability to perform daily intentions—known as prospective memory—is a key driver of everyday functional impairment in dementia. In the absence of effective pharmacological treatments, there is a need for developing, testing, and optimizing behavioral interventions that can bolster daily prospective memory functioning. We investigated the feasibility and efficacy of smartphone‐based strategies for prospective memory in persons with cognitive impairment. Methods Fifty‐two older adults (74.79 ± 7.20 years) meeting diagnostic criteria for mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia were enrolled in a 4‐week randomized controlled trial. Participants were trained to use a digital voice recorder app or a reminder app to off‐load prospective memory intentions. Prospective memory was assessed using experimenter‐assigned tasks (e.g., call the laboratory on assigned days), standardized questionnaires, and structured interviews. Secondary dependent measures included days of phone and app usage, acceptability ratings, quality of life, and independent activities of daily living. Results Participant ratings indicated that the intervention was acceptable and feasible. Furthermore, after the four‐week intervention, participants reported improvements in daily prospective memory functioning on standardized questionnaires (p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.285) and the structured interview (p < 0.001, d = 1.75). Participants performed relatively well on experimenter‐assigned prospective memory tasks (51.7% ± 27.8%), with performance levels favoring the reminder app in Week 1, but reversing to favor the digital recorder app in Week 4 (p = 0.010, ηp2 = 0.079). Correlational analyses indicated that greater usage of the digital recorder or reminder app was associated with better prospective memory performance and greater improvements in instrumental activities of daily living (completed by care partners), even when controlling for condition, age, baseline cognitive functioning, and baseline smartphone experience. Conclusions Older adults with cognitive disorders can learn smartphone‐based memory strategies and doing so benefits prospective memory functioning and independence.