Psychological distress is more common in disabled people
In 2020/21, nearly one in 10 adults aged 15 years and over (9.6 percent) had experienced psychological distress in the four weeks prior to taking part in the survey.
The proportion of disabled adults who experienced psychological distress in the past four weeks was 27.3 percent compared to 7.9 percent of non-disabled adults. After adjusting for age and gender, disabled adults were 4.6 times as likely to experience psychological distress as non-disabled adults.
The graph below shows that while both disabled males and disabled females were more likely to experience psychological distress than their non-disabled counterparts, the difference was greater for males.

Percentage experiencing psychological distress, by disability status and gender, 2020/21
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- This data was taken from the 2020/21 New Zealand Health Survey Annual Data Explorer