A decade of Australian general practice activity 2004-05 to 2013-14

Book excerpt: This report highlights changes in general practice activity in Australia over the most recent decade (April 2004 to March 2014) of the BEACH program, a continuous national cross-sectional study of general practice activity. Over this time 9,731 general practitioners (GPs) provided details of 973,100 GP-patient encounters. The report highlights changes that have occurred over the decade in the characteristics of GPs and the patients they see, the problems managed, and the treatments provided. Changes in prevalence of overweight and obesity, smoking status and alcohol use are also described for subsamples of more than 30,000 adult patients each year. This report is a companion to the annual report, General practice activity in Australia 2012-13.