Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a common chronic disease of the gastrointestinal tract that occurs in 3.1% of the Chinese population [1]. Heartburn, acid regurgitation and epigastric pain are typical clinical symptoms of GERD. These symptoms can affect patients' work productivity, sleep, diet and daily activities, thus resulting in a reduced quality of life (QOL) [2]. Although patient QOL is increasingly being considered as a medical outcome index in the evaluation of the impact of GERD symptoms on patients' health status, measuring patient QOL in clinical trials can be challenging due to the lack of a standard assessment tool. Therefore, we aim to review the commonly used generic, disease-specific and hybrid QOL questionnaires to evaluate patients with GERD to provide a reference for clinical nursing work. Copyright (C) 2015, Chinese Nursing Association. Production and hosting by Elsevier (Singapore) Pte Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license