Study limitations
hearing loss
HEARING LOSS, HARD OF HEARING
This study has some limitations that should be noted. Firstly, the sample size was small, and there was an uneven distribution of sexes, which may affect the generalizability of our results to other populations. The psychometric properties vary, which depends on participant characteristics. Therefore, our findings are more properly generalizable to community-dwelling female older adults with or without CI than other populations. Secondly, only participants who attended more than 70% of the sessions were included, limiting the generalizability to those with high motivation for participation. Thirdly, the participants’ medical conditions were collected through self- or informant-report. Based on this information, participants with a diagnosis of hearing loss or hard of hearing were excluded from the study. However, no formal assessment was conducted to determine the hearing status of the participants. Fourthly, we did not consider the significant difference in years of formal education between the two groups when analyzing dual task performance, as we did with the MoCA score. Education level can influence cognitive abilities and task performance, and it should have been considered to control for potential confounding effects. Lastly, participants were grouped into two categories based on their pre-intervention MoCA score, but CI is diverse and can have varying levels. Future research with a larger sample size should explore psychometric properties for individuals with different levels of CI.