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Low back pain is the greatest cause of disability worldwide. It affects 540 million people at any one time around the world and costs Australians approximately $4.8 billion every year just to cover treatment expenses.  Professor Manuela Ferreira is a highly ranked researcher internationally in the field of low back pain and is conducting studies at the University of Sydney to investigate better ways to treat this condition.

Research around the world has highlighted how important it is for people to be able to manage their symptoms when or if they experience an episode of low back pain. It is known, for example, that by learning and using the right skills to manage the low back pain, people are able to improve their pain, function and quality of life. However, more research is still needed to better understand how people with low back pain can be empowered and supported to manage their symptoms.

Text messages have been previously used to relay accurate and reliable information about health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Text messages can support patients who are willing to adopt healthier behaviours, such as increasing their physical activity participation, lose weight or stop smoking. Professor Ferreira and her team are now investigating if text messages can also support recovery from low back pain and empower people to better manage their symptoms.

The study is named ‘TEXT4myBACK’ and has been approved by the Northern Sydney Local Health District Ethics Committee.  Adults who currently have low back pain that is causing at least moderate interference with their everyday life and who have a mobile phone that can receive text messages are being invited to participate. Participants will receive different text messages with information and education about back pain over a period of 3 months. This represents a good opportunity for you to receive accurate and reliable information about low back pain without having to leave your home.

The study is being conducted remotely at a national level and people who live in Australia and have low back pain are invited to participate.

If you would like to participate, please complete the pre-screening at: https://bit.ly/text4myback

The research team will get in touch with you to confirm if you are eligible to participate and answer any questions you may have.