The Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) is a generic questionnaire developed to register the consequences of disease for daily life. We examined an open population (N = 232) aged 65 years and older irrespective of their health status by means of the SIP in order to obtain age related reference values. In addition to patient characteristics data on the patient's morbidity and health appraisal were collected. There appeared to be no relation between SIP-scores and sex. Age, however, as well as morbidity and health appraisal were significantly related to SIP-scores. These results emphasize the importance of the availability of age related reference values in outcome studies.