[Patient-centered evaluation of the illness sequelae of musculoskeletal diseases: overview of important outcome instruments].

Quality of life and patient-centered health status has received increasing attention during the last decade. Simultaneously, there have been multiple instruments to assess quality of life in a standardized way. There are several possible approaches to assess health status in a more standardized way: (1) the judgement of a health professional, (2) performing standardized activities by the patient, and (3) self report of patients with standardized questionnaires. This paper presents a selection of health status instruments that have been used successfully to assess health-related quality of life in patients with musculoskeletal diseases. The description is restricted to instruments that have sound psychometric properties and that have been published in the scientific literature.