The adherence to a consistent routine is of paramount importance for the maintenance of typical and adaptive functioning throughout the entirety of the human lifespan, including the later stages of adulthood. Scholars have emphasized the imperative nature of maintaining, at minimum, a threshold level of consistent behavioural patterns or routines in effectively managing adversity and delineating personal roles, which constitute foundational elements of an individual's identity and character [1, 2]. Routines are integral for structuring the day, fostering engagement, and cultivating a sense of purpose amongst older adults, thereby supporting their overall wellbeing. The incorporation of their preferences may serve to heighten their autonomy, social engagement, and life satisfaction [3–5]. The concept of routinization is defined as the organization of daily life around stable routines in the environment, behaviours, or social relationships [6]. Daily routines may be classified into two distinct categories: (1) Primary routines, which encompass behaviours essential for the maintenance of livelihood and biological needs (such as hygiene, sleep, and eating); and (2) secondary routines, which reflect individual circumstances, motivations, and preferences, including activities such as exercising, leisure pursuits, and practices associated with work or study (such as meticulous time management and the attainment of predetermined objectives) [7]. The importance of the consistency of daily routines in the evaluation and remediation of psychopathology has been underscored by the Social Zeitgeber Theory. This theory posits that individuals tend to engage in everyday activities regularly to synchronize inherent biological rhythms, such as body temperature, melatonin, and cortisol rhythms, with the 24-hour cycle. Furthermore, irregular daily routines, stemming from stressful life events, are hypothesized to disrupt circadian rhythms, thereby eliciting somatic symptoms that are directly linked to an elevated susceptibility to developing affective episodes [8, 9].
Routinization in older adults
As individuals age, the preservation of daily routines and structure can assume increasing importance in safeguarding their physical, cognitive, and emotional well-being. Adherence to familiar routines can mitigate cognitive burden during periods of stress in vulnerable older adults, thereby affording them the capacity to allocate mental faculties to other significant tasks or pleasurable pursuits and contributing to the management of chronic conditions [10, 11]. Routines may also facilitate social engagement, a crucial component for the physical and mental well-being of older adults, and the perpetuation of healthy behaviors, such as the promotion of health and the management of medication in patients suffering from chronic ailments [12]. Furthermore, preferences for routines (PR) can significantly impact the quality of life and resilience of older adults. Adherence to familiar routines can provide a sense of stability, predictability, and control, which are essential for maintaining feelings of security and confidence in the management of daily life [13]. This, in turn, can contribute to enhanced well-being and the ability to adapt to the challenges and uncertainties associated with the aging process (JW Reich and AJ Zautra [5]. Routines can also serve as a mechanism for coping with stress, as they can shield individuals from the disruption caused by novel circumstances or challenges. This adaptation to stressful situations was believed to foster resilience and improve the overall quality of life for older adults [4, 14].
In contrast, while routines can provide benefits for older adults, an excessive or rigid adherence to them can also have negative consequences. Individuals reporting diminished levels of daily routine exhibit inferior physical function, heightened anxiety, and increased depressive symptoms relative to those upholding more consistent daily routines [3]. There is also evidence that heightened disruptions in daily routines prospectively forecast inferior cognitive adaptation over time [15]. Rigid behavioral patterns resisting change or staunchly adhering to a specific order may typify maladaptive processes that hinder older individuals from addressing challenges or effecting necessary changes in their daily lives [5]. This may signify a depletion of resources impeding effective adaptation to loss, rendering them more susceptible in daily functioning [14, 16]. In some instances, PR may obscure physical limitations as older adults eschew activities outside of their comfort zone. This lack of adaptability may pose challenges for recovery from setbacks, illnesses, life transitions, or other disruptions to their preferred patterns of living [16, 17]. Altogether, PR might be regarded as an intra-individual factor indicative of inadequate adaptation to aging-related losses [18].
Considering the negative repercussions of an inflexible level of routine preferences on the various facets of older adults’ lives, it is imperative to establish practical methods within clinical practice aimed at assessing routine preferences. This is essential for ascertaining whether an older adult's RP may serve as a constructive coping mechanism or signal underlying vulnerabilities necessitating intervention and support [2]. Moreover, evaluating routine preferences in older adults holds potential implications across diverse aspects of their well-being and quality of life. A predictable daily routine can inform the formulation of supportive strategies geared towards helping older adults maintain healthy daily habits, contribute to cognitive stimulation, and preserve cognitive abilities in later life. Assessing routine preferences can facilitate the identification of older adults who could benefit from routine-based interventions designed to bolster independence, the aspiration to age in place, and to aid caregivers in developing personalized care plans, designing living environments, caregiving strategies, and community-based services aligned with the older adult's needs and preferences [3].
Measurement instruments of routinization in the older adults’ population
The number of scales rigorously developed and validated to accurately measure the routine preference construct remains limited. Amongst these measures, the Scale of Older Adults’ Routine (SOAR) is a 42-item measure encompassing five routine dimensions, each featuring five scoring systems [19]. Although these measures have demonstrated satisfactory psychometric characteristics, their length and/or method of administration may pose challenges for data collection in large-scale or multi-time-point studies operated under significant time and cost constraints [19].The Preferences for Routine Scale (PRS) represents a commonly utilized self-report measure of routine preference in older adults, primarily consisting of ten items rated on a five-point Likert scale. This includes specific items relating to general activities (e.g., ‘In general, I like to do the same things each day’), leisure (e.g., ‘I like to watch new shows or films on television’), and daily rhythms (‘I like to wake up and go to bed at the same time each day’) [4]. The 10-item PRS has exhibited lower alpha coefficient values in select previous studies, implying the need for further research aimed at assessing and refining the scale's validity [20].
Recently, V Bergua, A Edjolo, J Bouisson, C Meillon, K Pérès and H Amieva [21], introduced the Preferences for Routine Scale short form (PRS-S), offering notable advantages over other scales employed within this demographic, providing the same information within a shorter timeframe, at a reduced cost and burden, while preserving sound psychometric properties. This is crucial to account for potential biases inherent in respondent-interviewer interaction, such as the tendency to evaluate individuals with poorer communication skills or lower cognitive abilities as having mild memory impairment [21]. In the initial validation study, the developer initially conceptualized the PR as a unidimensional instrument assessing the desirability of changes to specific daily life habits or routines. All items loaded into a single higher-order dimension and were deemed a measure of overall general routine preference [4]. Subsequent efforts aimed at enhancing the scale's reliability [21] led to the support of a one-factor solution in a sample of community-dwelling older adults. A study by V Bergua, C Meillon, K Pérès, JF Dartigues, J Bouisson and H Amieva [22], upheld the unidimensional model of the PRS-S as the best fit to the data. In summary, the construct validity of the PRS-S is deemed beneficial in clinical application, with only limited research conducted within this realm. Scant information exists on the psychometric properties of the PRS. Previous validation studies have yielded disparate findings, with some demonstrating favourable psychometric properties [4], while others indicate lower reliability [20] of PRS-Long Form. Importantly, two studies revealed that the short form of PRS (PRS-S) exhibited superior psychometric properties compared to the longer version among the general population, as evidenced by a higher Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the short form [21, 22]. To the best of our knowledge, no Arabic version of the PRS-S is available to date for use among Arabic-speaking older adults.
Rationale of the present study
There is currently no validated and reliable measure of PR available in the scientific literature, and there is a dearth of research on this topic in Arabic-speaking countries. The absence of accurate measurement of routine preferences in older adults presents a considerable impediment to understanding its prevalence and to devising effective interventions in Arab contexts. The analysis of the preferences of older adults in their daily routines carries significant implications for informing policy decisions, improving service delivery, and efficiently allocating resources to better accommodate the rising older adults’ population on a global scale, and in the Arab world in particular. To contribute to the extant literature, our study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of an Arabic translation of the PRS-S in terms of factor structure, reliability, measurement invariance across sex, and concurrent validity in a sample of Arabic-speaking older adults. The study hypothesizes that the Arabic version of the PRS-S will demonstrate a similar factor structure to the original English version, exhibit adequate internal consistency reliability, and the factor structure of the Arabic PRS-S to be invariant across sex. In addition, it is hypothesized that the Arabic PRS-S will be significantly correlated with measures of older adults' quality of life and resilience, providing evidence of its concurrent validity.