Integration of the Interaction Model of Client Health Behavior and Transactional Model of Stress and Coping as a Tool for Understanding Retention in HIV Care Across the Lifespan

Retaining people living with HIV (PLWH) in care over the lifespan is critical to quality and longevity of life. Individual health behavior decisions that affect care retention are complicated and multifactorial. Current health behavior theories are inadequate in isolation to guide retention in care research. Two existing models, Cox's Interaction Model of Client Health Behavior, and Lazarus and Folkman's Transactional Model of Stress and Coping have both guided research with PLWH, although not related to retention in care. Integration of these models may more comprehensively inform care retention research and practice across the lifespan as it incorporates not only intra- and inter-personal characteristics and relationships but also the stress and coping experiences inevitable when living with a chronic illness such as HIV.