OBJECTIVES: Obesity has become a major public health problem worldwide. In Singapore, the prevalence of obesity among adults aged 18-69 years increased from 6.9% in 2004 to 10.8% in 2010. To the best of our knowledge, no single obesity-specific HRQoL instrument comprehensively covered areas of life that are important to obese individuals. Therefore we sought to assess the content validity of FABQOL, a newly developed instrument, to address the gap. METHODS: FABQOL (76 items) was developed based on literature review and mapped to obesity-specific International Classification of Functions Disability and Health (ICF) categories. Content validity (i.e. item comprehension and content coverage) was assessed through individual cognitive debriefing interviews with 30 English-speaking, ethnic Chinese, Malay and Indian overweight/obese patients from a weight management clinic at a public hospital in Singapore. For each item, we asked participants if the item was important to them (yes/no). Items that were perceived as not important by at least 50% of the participants and items that were not understood by at least 20% of the participants were removed. Participants were also asked to suggest additional items that were important.     RESULTS: Participants aged from 23-58 years (median age = 45), one-third were men and 90% were obese (BMI>27.5kg/m2). Two items “being able to eat as much as I want to” and “being able to reach for objects placed above me” were perceived as not important by 26 (87%) and 15 (50%) of participants respectively. Four items (“lethargic”, “distressed”, “anxious” and "stigmatized") were removed because they were poorly understood. Three participants suggested three new items pertaining to relationship with close friends, company image and personal leisure activities. CONCLUSIONS: The revised FABQOL comprises 73 items that were generally easy to understand and important to overweight/obese patients in Singapore. Psychometric properties of FABQOL will be evaluated in a larger study.