OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to translate and to validate the King's Health Questionnaire (KHQ) for Brazilian women with urinary incontinence. METHODS: The KHQ is a scale devised by Prof. Linda Cardozo et al 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. 134 patients with urinary incontinence, confirmed by the urodynamic study, 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 KHQ into Brazilian Portuguese language following international methodological recommendations. Due to language and cultural differences we performed cultural, structural, conceptual, and semantic adaptation on the KHQ, in order that patients were able to fully understand the questions. All patients answered KHQ twice on the same day, with an interval of 30 minutes, applied by two different interviewers. After 7 to 14 days, on a second visit, the questionnaire 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 (0,77-0,90), and the inter observer internal consistence varied from 0,66 to 0,944. Moderate to strong correlation was detected among the specific KHQ urinary incontinence dominions and clinical urinary incontinence manifestations known to affect the quality of life of these patients. CONCLUSION: KHQ was adapted to the Portuguese language and to the Brazilian culture, showing great reliability and validity. This questionnaire is now being evaluated in clinical trials on new therapeutic strategies for urinary incontinence in Brazil.