Michele Vitacca,1 Mara Paneroni,1 Paola Baiardi,2 Vito De Carolis,3 Elisabetta Zampogna,4 Stefano Belli,5 Mauro Carone,3 Antonio Spanevello,4,6 Bruno Balbi,5 Giorgio Bertolotti7 1Respiratory Rehabilitation Division, Salvatore Maugeri Foundation, IRCCS, Institute of Lumezzane, Brescia, 2Scientific Direction, Salvatore Maugeri Foundation, IRCCS, Institute of Pavia, Pavia, 3Respiratory Division, Salvatore Maugeri Foundation, IRCCS, Institute of Cassano delle Murge, Bari, 4Respiratory Division, Salvatore Maugeri Foundation, IRCCS, Institute of Tradate, Varese, 5Respiratory Division, Salvatore Maugeri Foundation, IRCCS, Institute of Veruno, Novara, 6Respiratory Diseases Unit, University of Insubria, Varese, 7Psychology Unit, Salvatore Maugeri Foundation, IRCCS, Institute of Tradate, Varese, Italy Background: As Barthel Index (BI) quantifies motor impairment but not breathlessness, the use of only this index could underestimate disability in chronic respiratory disease (CRD). To our knowledge, no study evaluates both motor and respiratory disability in CRD during activities of daily living (ADLs) simultaneously and with a unique tool. The objective of this study was to propose for patients with CRD an additional tool for dyspnea assessment during ADLs based on BI items named Barthel Index dyspnea.Methods: Comprehensibility, reliability, internal consistency, validity, responsiveness, and ability to differentiate between disease groups were assessed on 219 subjects through an observational study performed in an in-hospital rehabilitation setting.Results: Good comprehensibility, high reliability (interrater intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.93 [95% confidence interval 0.892–0.964] and test–retest intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.99 [95% confidence interval 0.983–0.994]), good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha 0.89), strong concurrent validity with 6 minute walking distance (Pearson r=–0.538, P