Illness and Medication Appraisals in People with HIV Deciding to Begin Antiretroviral Treatment (Report‪)‬

Introduction The decision to initiate antiretroviral treatment (ART) for HIV rests on a number of considerations ranging from the interpretation and implementation of formal treatment guidelines to informal assessments by providers and patients of a patient's likelihood to adhere to an ART regimen. Two central factors that subsequently influence the ability to maintain adherence are how people with HIV think about their disease (illness appraisals) and how they think about HIV medications (medication appraisals). An illness appraisal is an individual's beliefs about the course and consequences of an illness, which includes the interpretation of symptoms and the understanding of how the illness will affect future survival, health, and well-being. Illness appraisals (Moskowitz, Wrubel, Hult, Maurer,&Stephens, 2007; Moskowitz&Wrubel, 2005) have been described in terms of illness meaning (Browne et al., 1988; Farber, Mirsalimi, Williams,&McDaniel, 2003; Fife, 1994, 1995, 2005), illness representations (e.g., (Leventhal et al., 1997) personal models of illness (Skelton&Croyle, 1991), and illness perceptions (Weinman, Petrie,&Moss-Morris, 1996).