OBJECTIVE: The St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) has been validated and widely used in assessing health-related quality (HRQL) of life among Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients but it is complicated to score and can be a burden on respondents when there is limited time. A shorter and more concise instrument, Airways Questionnaire (AQ30), was developed to measure Quality of Life (QoL) of patients with obstructive airways. The AQ20 contains 20 items on the AQ30. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the responsiveness of the AQ20 and the SGRQ questionnaires to measure health-related quality of life of patients with COPD. STUDY DESIGN: Responses from a survey of 1,000 COPD patients participating in a pilot health management program were included in the analysis. A total of 181 COPD patients completed the AQ20 and the SGRQ. Spearman's Rank correlation was used to determine if the AQ20 and the SGRQ scores for symptoms, activity and impact and the overall score were correlated. A high correlation suggests that both surveys are capturing the same information. RESULTS: Scores for both AQ20 and the SGRQ were available for 181 cases. The correlation between the AQ20 and the symptoms component scores was 0.67 (p<0.05). Correlation between the AQ20 and the activity component was 0.69 (p<0.05) and the AQ20 and the impact component was 0.79 (p<0.05). The correlation between the AQ20 and the total SGRQ was 0.82 (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: The AQ20 appears to have similar properties and responsiveness that are similar to complex questionnaires such as the SGRQ. Because it is short and easy to administer the AQ20 may be useful in settings with limited time for HRQL assessments.