Delivering Health Coaching in a Student-Led Telehealth Clinic: Evaluating the Impact on Health-Related Quality of Life.

Abstract

Health professional student-led clinics are commonly integrated into programmes of study to provide unique learning opportunities for students and provide improved access to care for underserved populations. Participant health outcomes from student-led clinics are infrequently reported and are hard to compare with outcomes from other intervention approaches. This study aims to examine change in participant health-relate-d quality of life following engagement in a telehealth mediated health coaching focussed student-led clinic in Australia. Pre-post data using the EQ-5D-5L instrument were collected from 369 participants in the student-led telehealth clinic between August 2020 and August 2024. Participant data were converted to a utility score relevant to an Australian population. The mean change in health utility score after participating in the clinic was 0.06 (95% CI 0.03-0.08, p < 0.001). Regression analyses showed that a significant positive change in mean utility score was observable in younger (18-35) participants (0.13, 95% CI 0.05-0.21, p = 0.001), females (0.06, 95% CI 0.02-0.09, p = 0.001) and participants with a lower baseline (< 0.6) utility score (0.14, 95% CI 0.07-0.20, p < 0.001). Significant change was observed across physical health, psychological and environmental concerns. As health coaching is known to be an important feature of preventative health strategies, this research is a promising indicator of how a student-led telehealth clinic may be an effective contributor to the health care ecosystem.