This article aims to assess the level of autonomy among the persons self-identified as Qom people who are diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, and also to determine to what extent the disease impacts both their daily and working activities. Barthel Index was used to assess their functional dependence. On the other hand, semi-structured interviews were used to know how the disease affected the lives of people. The main results indicated that the prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis among them was higher than in the general population. Women are most frequently affected by the disease and at an earlier age, and the applied treatment does not alleviate the symptoms. Regarding the relationship between the level of dependence and the working activity, despite the relationship between the variables was not statistically significant, about 30% of the sample was either not able to work or unemployed because of the disease. The remaining sample did their work with varying levels of difficulty. The outcomes are discussed and some recommendations are provided to enable the designing of effective public health policies and strategies, which would allow reducing the inequities among this population