OBJECTIVES: To examine the disability and resource utilisation associated with osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis in five European countries. METHODS: A large international database was examined to evaluate the disability and resource use in patients with rheumatoid and osteo-arthritis. The database included the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) Disability Index, questions on satisfaction and questions on resource utilisation and lost work time. RESULTS: The Arthritis Disease Specific Programme, held by Adelphi Ltd, was used as the database for this study. It contains 4580 patient records; 4203 of which have self-reported HAQ data. HAQ data are reported for France (n = 609), Germany (n = 1079), Italy (n = 796), Spain (n = 1229), and the UK (n = 490). Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (n = 2022) consistently demonstrate more disability than those with osteoarthritis (n = 1836) (HAQ DI: 1.03 vs 1.01, respectively). Patients in the UK had the most RA and OA disability (HAQ DI 1.60 and 1.20, respectively). Within disease diagnosis, females had greater disability (1.08 vs 0.90 RA; 1.05 vs 0.95 OA). Patients with RA tend to have more GP and specialist visits over six months compared to OA (3.30 and 1.79 vs 3.26 and 1.41), although OA patients tend to have more ED visits (0.14 vs 0.07). Self-reported days off work over six months were also greater for RA patients (25.44 vs 20.24). The greatest work absences were seen in the UK (RA: 45.00; OA: 41.10) and the least days off work were seen in Italy (RA: 7.09; OA: 4.24). CONCLUSIONS: OA and RA have large impacts on disability and resource utilization in the European countries we examined. Although debilitating, the extent to which resources are consumed and work lost varies greatly from country to country. From this cross-sectional international database, RA patients have greater disability compared to OA. This is reflected by higher disability, greater resource utilisation, and more days off work.