OBJECTIVES: To assess the physical component score (PCS), mental component score (MCS), and EuroQol (EQ5D) score of RA and non-RA patients. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of civilian non-institutionalized Medical Expenditures Panel Survey (MEPS) data for the year 2006. 20,434 respondents had positive weight, had complete information, and who were atleast 18 years were included in the analysis. Clinical Classification Code 202 identified RA respondents. RA and Non-RA respondents were matched on age, gender, race, education, marital status, income, region, insurance, and comorbidity index score. Since the MEPS 2006 consists of only PCS and MCS, a mapping algorithm was used to derive EQ-5D score. Proc surveyfreq, and proc surveymeans to describe the demographic characteristics. T-tests were used to measure statistical differences in QOL scores between the 2 groups. RESULTS: Among adults with RA, 86.75% were whites with mean (SE) age of 59.83 (1.18) years and 80% were females. The mean (SE) PCS scores for the RA and Non-RA group was 34.25 (1.35) and 45.46 (1.30). The mean (SE) MCS scores for the RA and Non-RA group was 47.49 (1.09) and 51.14 (0.86). The mean (SE) EQ-5D index score for the RA and Non-RA groups was 0.74 (0.02) and 0.86 (0.01). The results were significant at an apriori alpha value of 0.05. CONCLUSIONS: Since the disease conditions were self-reported and institutionalized persons were not included, the true prevalence of RA may be underestimated. All QOL scores for RA patients were lower in the 2006 MEPS data indicating that respondents with RA have reduced QOL. RA significantly impairs QOL in the U.S. population. The study trengthens the importance of treating RA. This study did not differentiate QOL by severity of RA. RA-specific QOL measures were unavailable in MEPS.