Introduction .Rheumatic diseases are among the most frequent causes of morbidity and invalidity. Data on social conditions,educationandoccupation of patients with rheumatic diseases in the Czech Republic are not known so far.Objectives of project .The objective of the present study was to analyze family conditions,education and occupation of patients from the national register of rheumatic diseases which comprises patients with eight basic rheumatic diseases:rheumatoid arthritis (RA), juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA),reactive arthritis (ReA),psoriatic arthritis (PsA),systemic lupus erythematodes (SLE),systemic scleroderma (SSc),polymyositis,dermatomyositis (PM/DM),mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD).Patients and methods .Basic demographic and socioeconomic data of patients with the above diagnoses were assembled by means of questionaires in the out-patient surgeries of the Rheumatological Institute and in the surgeries of 30 field rheumatolo- gists from the entire Czech Republic.In different diagnoses the family status,maximum achieved education,social status and occupation were recorded.The different parameters were evaluated in absolute and relative number.Before the analysis was started the register comprised a total of 1178 patients.Results .Patients with rheumatic diseases are (except JIA)usually married (range 53.2 –78.0 %),the ratio of working people is 12.8 %(JIA)to 70.2 %(ReA),the ratio of partial invalidities is 0 %(SSc)to 9.1 %(MCTD),the ratio of invalidities is 2.1 %(ReA)to 36.4 %(MCTD).The ratio of unemployed in the group was 0 –4.3 %(PM/DM).The proportion of different professions could not be reliably evaluated due to the small numbers in different categories.

        Key words: epidemiology of rheumatic diseases,social and professional background,juvenile idiopathic arthritis,psoriatic arthritis