OBJECTIVES: To validate and compare the psychometric properties of two generic preference-based HRQoL instruments, EuroQol (EQ-5D) and Short-Form 6D (SF-6D) among stable angina pectoris (SAP) patients in China. METHODS: Validity of the EQ-5D and SF-6D was examined with eight a priori hypotheses from a consecutive sample (n=411, mean age 68.1+/-11.3) of SAP patients in conjunction with Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ). Responsiveness was tested using the effect size (ES), relative efficiency (RE) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Agreement between EQ-5D and SF-6D was tested using intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) and Bland-Altman plot. Factors affecting utility difference were explored with multiple liner regression analysis. RESULTS: The mean utility scores (SD) were 0.75(0.19) for EQ-5D and 0.68(0.12) for SF-6D. Validity was demonstrated by the moderate to strong correlation coefficients (range: 0.404-0.594, P<0.001) for four of the eight hypotheses in both EQ-5D and SF-6D. There were no serious ceiling effects for EQ-5D and SF-6D but floor effects for EQ-5D were large. SF-6D showed a better discriminative capacity (ES=0.573-1.179) between groups with different SAP-specific health status than EQ-5D (ES=0.385-0.851). RE showed that SF-6D (32.7-218.7%) was more efficient than EQ-5D. The areas under ROC of them all exceeded 0.5 (0.661-0.814, P<0.001). Poor agreement between them was observed with ICC (0.477, P<0.001) and Bland-Altman plot analysis. Multiple liner regression showed that clinical variables significantly (P<0.05) influenced differences in utility scores between EQ-5D and SF-6D. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence that EQ-5D and SF-6D are valid and sensitive preference-based HRQoL instruments in Chinese SAP patients. SF-6D may be a more effective tool with lower flooring effect and greater sensitivity. Further study is needed to compare other properties, such as reliability and longitudinal response.