A major survey of people's health shows one-in-four women regard themselves as being ill.

The Health Education Monitoring Survey (HEMS) found that 26% of women in England classified their general health as "less than good" and 24% said they had a long-standing illness.

The figures for men were only slightly better - 22% said their health was "less than good" and 20% said they had a long-standing illness.

The HEMS is the third of its kind carried out for the Health Education Authority by the Office of National Statistics as part of the government�s public health strategy.

The survey showed that health was worse among both men and women from lower social classes, and in households with incomes of less than �10,000. People with no educational qualifications or who lived in local authority housing also fared badly.

Women questioned were also more likely to say they had suffered a "large amount" of stress in the past 12 months - 29%, compared with 24% of men.

Lone mothers were among the most highly stressed groups.

Diet

But women's diets were better than men's, with 48% eating high-fibre breads, compared with 36% of men. Men questioned were less likely to mention the need to eat fruit, vegetables or salad - 62%, compared with 74%.

Again, diet was linked to wealth, with the less well-off having poorer diets.

Dr Martyn Walling, a GP who specialises in women's health, said: "I am surprised by these figures. I still think it is a man's life, but women's lives are improving, from contraception and hormone replacement therapy."

But the figures for stress among lone mothers were to be expected, he said.

A report concluded that particular groups were consistently less healthy.

The authors said : "These include respondents with no educational qualifications, those with no personal support group, those not involved in community activities, those lacking control over decisions affecting their lives, those with 'low neighbourhood social capital', and, to some extent, those in local authority housing."

Other key findings included:

• 29% of men smoked, compared with 26% of women
• 27% of men and 35% of women did not have any exercise of 'moderate intensity' each week
• Two-thirds of both men and women said they wanted to take more exercise