Traditional methods for evaluating the outcome of treatment in orthopaedic surgery include the assessment of clinical status, pain and radiography. For more than two decades, there has been an increasing interest in the use of health-status measures in clinical medicine. Outcome evaluation should not only consider clinical and radiographic parameters but also the patients' personal views on their health status and quality of life. Questionnaires developed from basic principles allow the measurement of these views objectively, as well as the comparison of data between groups. The current paper primarily addresses the orthopaedic surgeon and provides a review of quality of life and health-status measures commonly used in orthopaedic outcome studies. Generic and disease specific measures of health status can be used in orthopaedic surgery to complement an outcome assessment. Thereby, the personal view of the patient becomes an objective part of the evaluation.