The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of an individually tailored self-management intervention, the selfBACK app, in improving health status in patients on a waiting list for outpatient rehabilitation due to low back and/or neck pain compared to a non-tailored web-based self-management solution (e-Help) and usual care only.

Patients on waiting list for treatment at the multidisciplinary outpatient clinic for back, neck and shoulder rehabilitation, St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim University Hospital, Norway, due to low back and/or neck pain are the target group for this study. The average waiting time for receiving treatment is 8-10 weeks. The use of digital solutions can be a beneficial approach to support self-management during the waiting period. Therefore, the effectiveness of these tools in this patients group needs to be evaluated.

A total of 279 participants will be recruited and randomly allocated to one of the three groups: 1) the selfBACK app in addition to usual care; 2) the e-Help webpage in addition to usual care; and 3) usual care only. Participants who receive either the selfBACK app and the e-Help webpage will be allowed to seek care, treatment or help elsewhere as usual.

Self-reported outcome measures will be collected through web-based questionnaires at three follow-up time points: 1) 6 weeks; 2) 3 months (primary endpoint); and 3) 6 months. In addition, participants receiving the selfBACK app will be asked a set of weekly tailoring questions to individualize self-management plans. Objective registry based data linked to social security number in Norway will be used to investigate health care consumption and sickness absence at 1 year (and up to 5 years).

Inclusion Criteria:

• On waiting list for treatment at the multidisciplinary outpatient clinic for back, neck and shoulder rehabilitation, St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim University Hospital, Norway due to low back pain and/or neck pain
• Own and use a smartphone with internet access to download the mobile application
• Able to provide informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• Less than 4 weeks waiting time until scheduled appointment at clinic (i.e., patients prioritized for urgent treatment/examination)
• Unable to take part in exercise/physical activity, e.g. non-ambulatory patients, use of walking aids, unable to get up and down the floor independently
• Unable to speak and/or read Norwegian
• Unable to complete the baseline questionnaire

Individual participant data will be available, including data dictionaries. Data available to share include individual participant data collected during the trial, after deidentification.

Beginning 5 years after end of trial and ending 30 years after end of trial.

Investigators whose proposed use of the data has been approved by the national ethics committee. Proposals should be directed to the principal investigator. To gain access, data requestors will need to sign a data access agreement. Information regarding submitting proposals and accessing data may be found at (Link will be provided after completing the trial).

This study is a single-blinded trial. Participants and health personnel at the clinic will not be blinded to group allocation, whereas researchers performing the analysis and the interpretation of the results will be blinded to group allocation. Once the study is completed, the data will be extracted from the database in anonymized form for statistical analyses, i.e. all personal information that may identify specific participants or group allocation will be removed and the intervention and control groups will be randomly labelled as A, B and C.