Introduction: There is a worldwide interest about the evaluation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from the perspective of the patient, using patient-reported outcomes (PROs), in order to assess disease activity, quality of life, prognosis, and treatment adherence. Objective: To evaluate and analyze the instruments of PROs and the degree of correlation with the objective measures done by the health practitioners through a systematic review and metaanalysis. Materials and methods: A systematic review was done in PubMed, LILACS, Embase, SciELO y Virtual Library Health (Biblioteca Virtual de la Salud) databases, using the MeSH terms and DeCS, with limit: Humans. A metaanalysis was done using the software Comprehensive Meta-Analysis version 2. Results: 85 articles were included, finding high to moderate correlations between the objective measures performed by trained health care practitioners [DAS28, CDAI, SDAI, swollen joint count (SJC) and tender joint count (TJC) among others] and PROs (RAPIDs, RADAI, RADAR, HAQ, SJC and TJC) through metaanalysis applying the random effect models (p less than 0.0001). Conclusions: PROs have an adequate correlationand concordance with the objective measures done by the health care practitioners. It can be administrated in the clinical practice and clinical trials, without pretending to replace the clinical concept but with the aim to facilitate and optimize the clinical consult and the patient outcomes. Copyright © 2013, Asociación Colombiana de Reumatología.