OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to cross-culturally adapt and validate the Incontinence-Specific Quality of Life instrument (I-QOL) for Brazilian women with urinary incontinence. METHODS The I-QOL is a scale devised to assess quality of life impairment due to urinary incontinence. This questionnaire has been used in numerous studies to evaluate the consequences of the disease in daily life or the effects of different treatments. Seventy patients with urinary incontinence, were enrolled from the outpatient clinic of the Uroginecology and Vaginal Surgery Section of the Gynecology Department of the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP). Initially, we translated the I-QOL into Brazilian Portuguese language following international methodological recommendations. Due to language and cultural differences we performed cultural, structural, conceptual, and semantic adaptation on the I-QOL, in order that patients were able to fully understand the questions. All patients answered I-QOL twice on the same day with an interval of 30 minutes, applied by two different interviewers. Also the Kingxs Health Questionnaire (KHQ), already translated and validated to Brazilian Portuguese was applied to the patients. After 7 to 15 days, by phone interview, only I-QOL was applied again. Reliability (intra and inter observer internal consistency), construct and discriminative validity were tested. RESULTS Several cultural adaptations were necessary until we reached the final version. The intra-observer internal consistence (alpha of Cronbachxs) of the several dimensions varied from moderate to high (0.77-0.93), and the inter observer internal consistence varied from 0.65 to 0.88. Moderate to strong correlation was detected among the I-QOL dominions and the validated Brazilian Portuguese version of KHQ. CONCLUSIONS: I-QOL was adapted to the Portuguese language and to the Brazilian culture, showing good reliability and validity. This questionnaire is now being evaluated in clinical trials on new therapeutic strategies for urinary incontinence in Brazil.