Calendaring and alarms can improve naturalistic time-based prospective memory for youth infected with HIV.

Although randomised, the groups differed on mood, immune measures and AIDS status before the outcome analysis. The alarm-alone and calendar-alone results were not significant, so the main positive finding rests on the combined condition. The outcome was a short text task, not medication adherence or real-world instrumental activities. The sample was small and multiple comparisons were made, so the effect sizes and subgroup interpretations are uncertain. The study did not identify which participants benefited most, because larger variance in the alarm and combined groups was not explained by laboratory PM scores.

Do not conclude that a phone alarm alone is proven to improve everyday memory for young adults with HIV. Only the combined alarm and calendar condition was significantly better than control, and alarm alone was a non-significant trend.