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Guidelines for preventive activities in general practice (The Red Book) 7th Edition 2009

The Guidelines for preventive activities in general practice (the Red Book) is a synthesis of evidence-based guidelines from Australia and international sources. It provides recommendations for everyday use in general practice. The Red Book provides a single entry point to common conditions seen in Australian general practice and offers practical advice on what kind of screening and services should be provided to the general population. It identifies high risk segments of the population that require different preventive services. The Red Book also provides a list of screening tests of unproven benefit that are not recommended.

The recommendations in these guidelines are based on current evidence based guidelines for preventive activities. Precedence has been given to those that are most relevant to Australian general practice. Usually this means that the recommendations are based on Australian guidelines such as those endorsed by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). In cases where these are not available, or recent, other Australian sources have been used such as the National Heart Foundation of Australia or Canadian or US preventive guidelines or the results of systematic reviews. References to support these recommendations are listed. However, particular references may relate to only part of the recommendation (eg. only relating to one of the high risk groups listed) and other references in the section may have been considered in formulating the overall recommendation.

Recommendations in these guidelines are consistent with the Medicare Benefits Schedule at the time of writing. There are a range of Medicare items for health assessments in particular groups. Comprehensive annual health assessment is currently approved for those 75 years of age and over (items 700 and 702) and Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders 55 years of age and over (items 704 and 706). The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Adult Health Check (item 710) provides for 2 yearly health checks for those aged 15–54 years inclusive. There is a health check for patients aged 45–49 years who have a risk factor (item 717) and for patients who are refugees (items 714 and 716). Item 708 is the health check item for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Items 718 and 719 are for health assessments in the intellectually disabled. Item 713 is for type 2 diabetes risk evaluation.

Scope and limitations

These guidelines have not included tertiary prevention or detailed information on the management of risk factors or early disease (eg. what medications to use in treating hypertension). Similarly it has not made recommendations about tertiary prevention (ie. preventing complications in those with established disease). Also, information about prevention of infectious diseases has been limited largely to immunisation and some sexually transmitted infections. There is limited advice about travel medicine. Information on travel medicine can be obtained from the Centres for Disease Control at www.cdc.gov/travel/index.htm or WHO International Travel and Health at www.who.int/ith

These recommendations are based on the best available information at the time of writing. On past experience this means that the guidelines will remain current for no more than 2 years. Any update information will be posted on the RACGP website. Australian readers can find other information and guidelines on the NHMRC website at www.health.gov.au and the Cochrane Collaboration at www.cochrane.org.au

Last Modified: 1 May 2009