Date of Award

5-2025

Document Type

Project

Degree Name

Master of Public Health

Department

Health Science and Human Ecology

First Reader/Committee Chair

Olney, Amber

Abstract

In the last 40 years, the United States has seen remarkable progress in the field of HIV treatment; however, the virus continues to burden the most vulnerable members of society, such as Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) and Intravenous Drug Users (IVDU). Unfortunately, these vulnerable members of society continue to lack stable social conditions to get into proper HIV treatment. These social conditions are referred to as social determinants of health, which are non-medical factors that influence whole-person care. With these members of society continuing to face greater social disparities, their linkage to care and retention to care is jeopardized, leaving an extra window for HIV transmission to continue. Due to this, this project focuses on a thorough literature review on eight scholarly studies to review if a greater concentration on important social determinants of health, such as stable housing, navigation support, and or access to mental health resources, helps support greater linkage and retention to HIV care. In result, six of the eight literature pieces selected signified the importance of establishing a multidisciplinary approach that revolves around the implementation of social determinants of health and whole person care to combat the HIV epidemic. With these captured results, the implementation of the Ending the HIV Epidemic and its Treatment Pillar concepts are highly recommended to be addressed, particularly in hard hit counties, such as in the Inland Empire.

Keywords: HIV, social determinants of health, linkage to care, retention to care

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