Abstract Background A substantial number of people who have suffered a stroke perceive unmet needs for rehabilitation and other health care services. Disability is one of the phenomena underlying people’s need for health care services and disability/problems can be viewed both from the perspective of people with stroke (felt problems), and from the perspective of health professionals (assessed problems). Objective The aim was to describe the felt problems three months after stroke and to explore the concurrence between the felt problems and the assessed problems. Method The patients (n=203) received care in the stroke units at Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden. Felt problems, collected by posing an open question, were categorized. Results from three established assessment tools: Katz Extended Index of ADL (KE); Barthel Index (BI) and Stroke Impact Scale (SIS) represented assessed problems. Items/domains in the assessment tools that corresponded to the categories of felt problems were identified and comparisons between the felt problems and the assessed problems performed. Result Fatigue was the category with the largest number of felt problems (n=58, 28%). Fourteen out of the 28 categories of felt problems, had corresponding items/domains in the KE/ BI and the SIS. The KE/BI failed to identify 16-57% of the felt problems whereas the SIS failed to identify 0-33%. Conclusion There was a substantial lack of concurrence between felt and assessed problems. The results indicate that the use of standardized instruments has to be complemented by open questions and dialogue if the health care services are to be based on the problems experienced by the patients.