General practice activity in Australia 1998-99 to 2007-08: 10 year data tables

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General practice series no. 23

This publication is the 23rd in the General Practice Series produced by the Australian General Practice Statistics and Classification Centre, a collaborating unit of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the University of Sydney. It presents results from each of the ten years of the BEACH program, April 1998 to March 2008. There have been 9,875 participating GPs who have provided details of almost 1 million GP-patient encounters, made up of ten annual samples of about 100,000 encounters records from around 1,000 randomly selected general practitioners. Results are provided for the more frequent events occurring in general practice in any of the ten years of the study. Readers can review changes that have occurred over the decade in the characteristics of general practitioners and the patients they see; the problems managed and the treatments provided. Information on body weight to height ratio, smoking status and alcohol use for annual subsamples of patients in each year, 1998-99 to 2007-08, is provided.

Authored by Bayram C, Britt H, Charles J, Fahridin S, Harrison C, Henderson J, Miller GC, O'Halloran J, Pan Y & Valenti L.

Published 3 October 2008; ISSN 1442-3022; ISBN-13 978 1 74024 829 7; AIHW cat. no. GEP 23; INTERNET ONLY


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Full publication (2.35MB PDF)

  • Preliminary material (70KB PDF)
    • Half title and verso pages
    • Title and verso pages
    • Acknowledgments
    • Contents
    • Abbreviations
    • Symbols
  • Body sections
    1. Introduction (31KB PDF)
      1. Background - general practice in Australia
    2. Methods (67KB PDF)
      1. Data elements
      2. Statistical methods
      3. Changes over time
      4. Extrapolated national estimates
      5. Classification of data
      6. Changes to data elements and reporting methods
    3. The sample (31KB PDF)
    4. The participating GPs (65KB PDF)
    5. 5 The encounters (62KB PDF)
      1. Content of the encounters
    6. 6 The patients (84KB PDF)
      1. Age-sex distribution of patients at encounter
      2. Other patient characteristics
      3. Patient reasons for encounter
    7. Problems managed (98KB PDF)
      1. Number of problems managed
      2. Distribution of problems managed by ICPC-2 component
      3. Problems managed by ICPC-2 chapter and individual problems managed
      4. Most common new problems
      5. Most frequently managed chronic problems
    8. Overview of management (60KB PDF)
    9. Medications (99KB PDF)
      1. Prescribed medications
      2. Medications supplied by GPs
      3. Medications advised for over-the-counter purchase
    10. Other treatments (72KB PDF)
      1. Clinical treatments
      2. Procedural treatments
    11. Referrals and admissions (52KB PDF)
    12. Investigations (58KB PDF)
      1. Number of encounters where pathology or imaging was ordered
      2. Pathology test orders by MBS groups
      3. Imaging test orders by MBS group
    13. Practice nurse activity (66KB PDF)
      1. Practice nurse activity at GP-patient encounters
      2. Distribution of practice nurse item numbers claimed at encounters
      3. Treatments provided by practice nurses
      4. Individual treatments most frequently involving practice nurses
      5. Problems managed with practice nurse involvement
    14. Patient risk factors (77KB PDF)
      1. Body mass index
      2. Smoking
      3. Alcohol consumption
  • End matter
    • References (25KB PDF)
    • Glossary (38KB PDF)
    • Appendices (345KB PDF)
      1. BEACH methods
        • Presentation of data classified in ICPC-2
        • Classification of pharmaceuticals
      2. Patient risk factor substudy methods
      3. Example of a 2007-08 recording form
      4. GP characteristics questionnaire,2007-08
      5. Code groups from ICPC-2 and ICPC-2 PLUS
      6. Chronic code groups from ICPC-2 and ICPC-2 PLUS
      7. Dissemination of results from the BEACH program
    • List of tables (28KB PDF)
    • List of figures (22KB PDF)