OBJECTIVES: To test the validity and reliability of a newly developed Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) quality of life instrument: the Indian Health-Related Quality of Life Instrument (IND-HAQ). METHODS: A total of 60 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients were asked to complete the IND-HAQ at 2 time points (4 weeks apart). Patients also completed the Stanford Health Assessment Questionnaire (PROMIS-HAQ) at the second time point. PROMIS-HAQ scores were used to assess the validity of the IND-HAQ. Besides the HAQ, the other outcome measures constituting the ACR core-set were also obtained both at baseline and 4 week apart. These included tender joint count (out of 28), swollen joint count (out of 28), physician’s and patient’s global assessment of disease activity, pain score and Westergren erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). Disease activity was measured using the DAS28 score, which was obtained at baseline and at the end of the study for each patient. RESULTS: The median age of the 60 study patients was 48 yr ±9.5SD and the median duration of symptoms was 17 months ±5.5SD. Thirty of these received the English version of the HAQ and the other 30 received the Hindi version. Baseline HAQ values for English and Hindi groups were 1.84±0.48 and 1.91±0.49, respectively. After treatment, the HAQ values changed to 0.71±0.42 and 0.62±0.51, respectively, demonstrating a very good sensitivity to change (Student’s unpaired t-test: P<0.05). Construct validity was assessed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient between the corresponding values of HAQ and DAS28, both at baseline (r=0.47, P<0.05) and after intervention (r=0.60, P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: These results support the validity, and reliability of the IND-HAQ as a measure that captures the impact of RA on patients’ health-related quality of life.