Main description:

This report highlights changes in general practice activity over the decade from April 2005 to March 2015 measured by the University of Sydney's BEACH program, a continuous study of general practice activity in Australia. Over this time, 9,773 general practitioners (GPs) provided details of 977,300 GP-patient encounters. The report highlights changes over the decade in the characteristics of GPs and the patients they see, the problems managed and the treatments provided. Changes in prevalence of measured risk factors (overweight, obesity, smoking and at-risk alcohol use) are described for sub-samples of more than 30,000 adult patients each year. Changes in the prevalence of overweight and obesity over the decade are also described for annual sub-samples of more than 2,500 children aged 2-17 years. This report is a companion to the annual report General Practice Activity in Australia 2014-15.

Contents:

List of tables
List of figures
Summary 1. Introduction
2. Methods
3. The samples
4. The participating GPs
5. The encounters
6. The patients
7. Problems managed
8. Overview of management
9. Medications
10. Other treatments
11. Referrals and admissions
12. Investigations
13. Patient risk factors
References
Abbreviations
Symbols
Glossary
Appendix 1: example of a 2014-15 recording form
Appendix 2: GP characteristics questionnaire, 2014-15
Appendix 3: patient information card, 2014-15
Appendix 4: code groups from ICPC-2 and ICPC-2 PLUS