Page |42 For research purposes, loneliness lonely individuals are actually more is typically measured on a continuum likely than nonlonely individuals to that ranges from not at all lonely (.e., make use of health facilities and socially connected) to very lonely. It is physicians." informative, however, to get a sense of Most chronic diseases (e.g., the prevalence of loneliness when hypertension, coronary artery disease, assessed as present or absent. Loneliness diabetes) are the result of the interactive is a common experience; as many as 80 influences of genetic, environmental, percent of people under 18 years of age and behavioral factors on physiological and 30 percent of people over 65 years functioning. How do feelings of of age report being lonely at least loneliness penetrate to a level that affects sometimes. For most people, feelings of disease risk? Plausible pathways include loneliness are situational and transient poor health behaviors, stress-related (e.g., geographic relocation). For as processes, restorative “anti-stress” many as 15-30% of the general processes, and even differences in population, however, loneliness is a patterns of gene activity. In general, chronic state, and it is among these physiological systems exhibit individuals that loneliness wreaks its redundancies and compensatory greatest havoc. In a study of children processes that minimize the immediate followed through young adulthood, health effects of adverse heritable, those who were highly lonely at each of environmental, and behavioral factors. three measurement occasions (i.¢., However, subtle changes in these childhood, adolescence, and at 26 years predisease pathways can be detected of age) exhibited a significantly greater prior to the onset of manifest disease and number of standard health risks. The may indicate the beginnings of a steeper chronically lonely individuals were more downward trajectory in resilience.” likely to have higher body mass index Take health behavi