Post-COVID-19 quality of life trajectories in chiropractic health professional students in the context of institutional wellbeing interventions in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly disrupted health professional education, with lasting effects on student wellbeing. Following documented post-lockdown declines in quality of life (QOL) among chiropractic students in Aotearoa New Zealand, targeted wellbeing programs were implemented to support institutional recovery. Methods: Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey data were collected, March–April 2024, and compared across time points (2019, 2022, 2024) and against New Zealand normative values. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests compared data with norms, and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests compared between-cohort, with effect sizes reported as rank-biserial correlations. Results: One hundred and fourteen students (25.2 ± 5.5 years, 59.0% female) were compared with 276 pre-COVID (25.6 ± 5.2 years, 51.1% female) and 120 post-COVID (25.1 ± 6.0 years, 60.8% female) datasets. QOL declined markedly in 2022, with partial recovery by 2024. Improvements were most evident in Role Emotional (Year 4: 21.6 to 76.4, p