OBJECTIVES: To assess informal care use in relation to disease activity (DAS-28CRP) and disability index of the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ-DI) in Polish patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: Data on amount of time consumed for informal care (unpaid assistance of family member or other caregiver) was collected during a prospective one center cohort observational study of non-selected RA patients discharged from tertiary academic hospital. At enrollment patients were divided according to DAS28-CRP and HAQ-DI. Observational period was 6 months. Spearman rang correlation coefficient test was used to investigate the relationship between informal care and disability. RESULTS: 205 patients were included in the analysis: 89 with DAS-28CRP ≤5.1 (group A), 116 with DAS28-CRP >5.1 (group B), 51 with HAQ-DI ≤1 (group I), 88 - with HAQ-DI ≤2 and >1 (group II) and 66 patients with HAQ-DI > 2 (group III). 164 (80%) patients have been looked after by informal caregivers (64% and 92% in A and B, respectively, and 47%, 89% and 94% in I, II and III, respectively). Mean number of hours of informal care per patient during 6 months was 467 (336, 567, 153, 412 and 783 hours in A, B, I, II and III, respectively). There were significant (p<0.0001) positive correlations between both disease activity and disability index and both number of patients being looked after by informal caregivers and number of hours of informal care. CONCLUSIONS: Informal care involves substantial time inputs depending on disease activity and functional status of the care receiving RA patients. On one side, improving access to formal caregiving might be a good solution to improve quality of life and enhance productivity of present informal caregivers in Poland. On the other side slowing down the disease process might reduce the need of informal care for RA patients.