The purpose of this study was to assess how patients with burns perceive their physical, psychological, social, and economic status since their burn injuries and to examine the question, "Does burn severity or age at the time of injury affect the patient's perception of his or her quality of life after burn injury?" A 25-item questionnaire was mailed to 1837 former patients who had been hospitalized in our adult burn center from 1975 to 1987, and 245 (13.1%) completed questionnaires were returned. The chi 2 test suggests that the patient sample overall did not experience a change in perceptions after burn injuries. However, when the adult group is divided by burn severity (grouped into low and high percent of burn) and by age at the time of injury (grouped into young and old), both the young and the older persons with high burn severity identify impairments in their quality of life after burn injury.