Many people experience low back pain, which often gets better on its own.

When it doesn’t, treatments like pain medicine and exercise usually help.

But for some people, the pain continues or gets worse.

This can affect their health and make it hard to do everyday things like going to work or spending time with family.

One treatment option is lumbar fusion surgery.

This is an operation that joins the bones in the lower spine.

This type of surgery has helped people with joint problems in other parts of the body. But we do not know how well it works for this type of low back pain.

The FORENSIC-Australia Study, led by The University of Queensland, is trying to find out whether lumbar fusion surgery works better than Personalised Spinal Care for people with ongoing, severe low back pain. Both treatments are already used in Australia.

Personalised Spinal Care is a treatment plan tailored to you.

It includes a small number of  treatments supported by clinical guidelines, such as structured and supervised exercise, programmes to support your physical and mental health, plus other ways to manage pain.

The study will also compare which treatment is better value for money.

We are inviting 270 adults aged 18 to 65 from around 20 hospitals across Australia to take part.

Everyone who joins will be placed into one of two groups: one will have lumbar fusion surgery and the other will have Personalised Spinal Care.

There is a 50/50 chance of being in either group, which allows us to make a fair comparison.

Taking part is voluntary.

If you would like to take part and you are eligible, you will be asked to sign a consent form.

The local hospital team can then share your contact details with the FORENSIC-Australia research team.

When you join the study, you will be asked to complete a questionnaire about your low back pain and general health. It takes about 30 minutes and is repeated at 6 months, 1 year and 2 years.

Each month for two years, you will be invited to rate your low back pain from 0 to 10 by text message, email or phone.

The team will provide vouchers to thank you for your time.

By taking part in the FORENSIC-Australia Study, you can help improve treatment for people with ongoing, severe low back pain.

You may also be invited to join the Recruitment Information Study.

This looks at how people decide whether or not to take part in the FORENSIC-Australia Study and will help us improve how we explain the study to others.

We may ask to record your conversations with the study team or to take part in an interview.

You can choose to join the FORENSIC-Australia Study, the Recruitment Information Study, both studies, or neither.

If you have any questions, please speak to a member of the study team.