Introduction. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic disease leading to deformation of joints and requiring the use of long-term therapy. Patients with RA are struggling with persistent pain, morning stiffness and joints’ swelling. Pain, as one of the major areas of life, affects the patients’ quality of life. Aim. The assessment of the impact of pain on the quality of life of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Material and methods. The studies involved 40 people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, 40 non-professional carers of these patients and 36 nurses being also involved in the care. A research questionnaire was used to that purpose as well as three standardized research tools: Scale of Effectiveness of the Obtained Care, Scale of the Efficiency of the Care and the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP/Health Profile) questionnaire. The relatedness amongst the variables was tested using the Chi2 test and the Spearman correlation test, assuming the level significance p < 0.05. Results. More than half of the diagnosed patients with RA indicated a low quality of life being affected by pain. This affected the functioning of the patients with rheumatoid arthritis in the area referred to as "interests and hobbies". The research demonstrated a significant relationship between the professional activity and the age of the patient, and the feeling of pain while walking, standing or sitting. The patients claiming pension or retirement felt pain significantly more while walking, and those over 60 years old felt it significantly more frequently while standing or sitting. The research demonstrated a significant correlation between the quality of life of the patients being affected by pain, and their dependence on the caregivers. The patients with a low quality of life were more dependent on nurses and non-professional caregivers. Conclusions. The joint pain accompanying the RA used to decrease the quality of life of the patients with RA, and substantially limited one of the spheres of life – interests and hobbies. A low quality of life of the patients affected by the RA pain condition makes them more dependent on the care-protective activities exercised by the nurses and the non-professional caregivers.

Key words: rheumatoid arthritis, pain, spheres of life.