Because there is no respiratory-specific activities of daily living (ADL) scale for use in older patients, our aim was to design and develop the Manchester Respiratory ADL questionnaire (MRADL) and to assess its validity in older patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The MRADL is a composite of the most discriminative questions from the Nottingham Extended ADL Questionnaire (NEADL) and the Breathing Problems Questionnaire (BPQ). A University teaching hospital. Participants were 188 (104 men) COPD out-patients aged 60 to 93 (mean 77) years and 55 (23 men) normal controls (NCs) aged 70 to 90 (mean 78) years. Exclusions were confusion and acute respiratory exacerbation/use of oral corticosteroid within 6 weeks. A subgroup of COPD subjects completed a pulmonary rehabilitation program (PR) to assess responsiveness of the MRADL to intervention. All subjects completed MRADL and NEADL scales, and 15 COPD subjects (11 men) completed an 8-week PR program. Mean (SE) 1-second forced expiratory volume (FEV1) in COPD subjects was 0.94 (0.03) liters, and in NCs it was 1.96 (0.07) liters. MRADL discriminated better between COPDs and NCs than did the NEADL in terms of sensitivity (90% vs 76%; X2 = 4.8, P = .02) and negative predictive value (84% vs 69%; X2 = 4.5, P = .03). MRADL responded to changes during PR: pre versus post mean (SE) score 11.2 (1.1) vs 13.4 (1.1); (t = 3.09; P = .008), but NEADL was unchanged. MRADL showed high consistency (Cronbach alpha 0.91). 95% confidence limits of repeatability were -0.63 to +0.26 (P = .42) for MRADL and -0.53 to +0.26 (P = .50) for NEADL. MRADL is a reliable and valid self-report scale for assessment of physical disability in older COPD patients. It is responsive to pulmonary rehabilitation.