AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to translate from English and evaluate the validity, reliability and cultural relevance of the Cardiovascular Limitations and Symptoms Profile (CLASP) as a health-related quality-of-life (HRQL) measure in Chinese patients with coronary heart disease. BACKGROUND: Improvement in HRQL is increasingly used as a primary outcome in determining the treatment benefit using a generic instrument. However, disease-specific instruments are being cited as more responsive and sensitive in detecting even the smallest changes in health status. Therefore, valid and reliable disease-specific measures for patients with coronary heart disease are now being developed and evaluated. DESIGN: Questionnaire design. METHODS: The translation equivalence and content validity of the Chinese version of CLASP were evaluated by an expert panel. Measurement performance was tested on a convenience sample of 369 Chinese coronary heart disease patients. RESULTS: The instrument demonstrated good content validity (content validity index 0.94), acceptable internal consistency (>0.70), except for two subscales of angina and tiredness and significant positive correlations among the subscales of CLASP, Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale and the Short Form 36 Health Survey. Principal components analysis revealed nine factors that together explained 69% of the variance. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study support that CLASP is a valid and reliable disease-specific health status measure for Chinese patients with coronary heart disease. However, further item modifications and testings are needed when considering the cross-cultural context. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The use of disease-specific HRQL measures could effectively evaluate nursing interventions in clinical practice. Further validations of CLASP among different diagnostic groups, such as patients with heart failure and those who have survived an acute myocardial infarction, would provide further empirical support for its use with all patients with heart disorders.