Abstract
In society of today there are great demands on young women concerning education, work and social life and also concerning health and beauty expectations. The aim of this study was to compare 26-year old Swedish women studied at intervals of twenty years concerning stress in daily life and self-rated health. The participants in 2002 (n=386) answered the same questionnaire that was used twenty years ago in a prospective population study (n=85). The result showed no difference in self-rated health between the two groups. However, women in 2002 reported more stress and health complaints such as exhaustion, sleep disorders, restlessness and difficulty concentration. They also reported low energy level and bad appetite. This discomfort must be interpreted with caution and not necessarily as ill health. However, it is important to take the experience of stress in daily life and the increase in health complaints into consideration even if women today rate their health as good in order to avoid lasting imbalance and thereby future diseases.