Longitudinal Trend Study on Health Behaviors, Self-Rated Health and Quality of Life Among Social Work Students: Examination of the Impact of COVID

Background:

The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly impact on people’s health and overall quality of life , including the college students. College students reported reduced physical activity level, increased rate of unhealth behaviors, high levels of stress throughout the pandemic, which could potentially lead to a deterioration of physical health and fitness, and quality of life. While some improvements have been observed in the post-pandemic era, the long-term impact of these changes on health still needs research attention. Social work students were exposed to secondary traumatic stress and faced with more practical challenges in their field placements during Covid which could affect their health. However, limited study investigated the impact of Covid on health behaviors, health status, and quality of life among social work students using a longitudinal design. The purpose of this study is to examine the trends in health behaviors, health status and quality of life among social work students before, during, and after the Covid.

Methods: This longitudinal trend study drew independent samples from social work students at a public university over five years (2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025) via an online survey (N=208). The independent variable is the year and Covid period (pre-, during- and post-Covid). The dependent variables include key health behaviors (smoking, sleep, exercise hours per week), self-rated health, and quality of life. Descriptive analyses were used to compare the difference in health behaviors, status and quality of life across different years and Covid periods (ANOVA, correlation, and Chi2). Multivariate regression models were established to examine the effect of time and Covid controlling the basic demographics such as age, race/ethnicity. All data analyses were conducted using STATA 19.

Results: Majority of sample were whites (76%) with a mean age of 25 (SD = 8.2). No significant differences in terms of demographics across the samples of different years. Bivariate analysis showed correlations between health behaviors (sleep, exercise) with self-rated health, and some differences in the exercise hours over time. No differences in smoking behaviors were found over time. Multivariate regression showed that sleep hours (b=0.023, p<0.05) and exercise hours (b= 0.082, p <0.05) had positive effects on self-rated health, but not for quality of life. No significant differences in health behaviors, self-rated health or quality of life were observed over time before, during or after Covid.

Implications: Although this study did not find significant impact of Covid on health behaviors, health status, or quality of life possibly due to the small homogeneous sample for each year (the pre-Covid period only included 2019 data), it is worthwhile to examine the longitudinal trend of health behaviors and outcomes. The analysis showed some potential patterns of change in smoking and exercise behaviors across different time periods, so future studies should reinvestigate the longitudinal trend of health behaviors/outcomes among social work students with a large diverse sample. The findings on the long-term effects on health will help social work educators to better assist students in a public health crisis like the pandemic in the future.