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

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.