An embedded, event-based prospective memory task administered via telephone is associated with everyday functioning in healthy younger and older adults.

Abstract

Introduction: Prospective memory (PM) is a higher-order cognitive function that involves the ability to execute a future intention. PM is a clinically relevant construct for the neuropsychological assessment of older adults given its importance in everyday functioning and quality of life. However, there is a paucity of reliable and ecologically relevant PM tasks that are amenable to a telehealth environment. The current study examined whether an event-based PM task embedded throughout a psychological battery administered via telephone was associated with everyday functioning in healthy older and younger adults.

Method: The study included 60 older (i.e. ages 50+) and 46 younger (i.e. ages 18-35) adults who completed a 90-minute telephone-based evaluation that included clinical measures of cognition, subjective cognitive symptoms, instrumental activities of daily living (ADL), and performance-based functional capacity. PM was measured by a four-trial task with focal, event-based cues embedded within the broader test battery.

Results: Lower PM showed medium-to-large univariable associations with all three measures of everyday functioning in the full sample. Multiple regressions covarying for global cognitive functioning showed that PM was uniquely associated with instrumental ADL in older adults and with performance-based functional capacity in the full sample.

Conclusions: These data provide preliminary support for the incremental, criterion validity of an embedded, telephone-based task of PM in relation to everyday functioning. Measurement of PM via telephone is feasible and may add value to standard neuropsychological assessment.