The rate of mental health service use in New Zealand as analysed by ethnicity.

Objectives: To compare by ethnicity the rates of apparent new referrals and admissions to mental health services for selected major diagnostic groupings.

Method: Using a Ministry of Health database covering all referrals and admissions to New Zealand's Mental Health services in 2014 and who had not been patients in the preceding six years, population adjusted rates of presentation were calculated and compared across the two major New Zealand ethnic groupings.

Results: Population corrected rates of apparently new cases of schizophrenia are more than twice as common in Māori as in non-Māori.

Driver distraction and driver inattention: definition, relationship and taxonomy.

There is accumulating evidence that driver distraction and driver inattention are leading causes of vehicle crashes and incidents. However, as applied psychological constructs, they have been inconsistently defined and the relationship between them remains unclear. In this paper, driver distraction and driver inattention are defined and a taxonomy is presented in which driver distraction is distinguished from other forms of driver inattention.

Cell phone conversing while driving in New Zealand: prevalence, risk perception and legislation.

This study investigated (i) the prevalence of conversing on a cell phone while driving in New Zealand, (ii) respondents' perception of risk regarding this behaviour and (iii) attitudes towards legislation banning cell phone use while driving. In addition, the study examined the association between the prevalence of conversing on a cell phone and risk perception. Anonymous, self-reported, survey data was collected via the internet from 1057 drivers nationwide regarding the frequency of conversing on a cell phone, including hands-free and hand-held conversing, risk perception, views on legislation, and demographic information.

Hand preference for sending mobile-phone text messages: associations with sex, writing hand, and throwing hand.

Hand preference for sending mobile-phone text messages ("texting") and its relationship with hand preference for other activities were investigated in a questionnaire study with 886 participants. Overall rates of both sinistrality and dextrality were reduced for texting, in comparison with other activities, due to the substantial number of individuals who use both hands simultaneously when performing this activity. Because they both involve verbal expression, it was hypothesised that the association between hand preferences for texting and writing might be stronger than the association between either of these tasks and more spatial activities, such as throwing.