Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify risk factors associated with a more severe course of COVID-19 in patients with rheumatic diseases and whether there is an association between treatment of patients with rheumatic diseases and complications of COVID-19 infection. Study design: cross-sectional study Participants and Methods: The study included patients of the Department of Rheumatology, Clinical Immunology and Allergology of UHC Osijek with diagnosed rheumatoid disease and COVID-19 between March 2020 and March 2021. The data was collected from the medical records. χ2 test and Mann-Whitney U test were used for the statistical data processing. The statistical significance was set at α = 0.05. Results: We collected data from 55 patients with rheumatic diseases. Median age was 59 (IQR 50 – 65) and female sex 62 %. 10 of the 55 patients with confirmed COVID-19 developed pneumonia that required admission to the hospital and one patient died. The most common rheumatic diseases were spondyloarthritis (46 %), followed by rheumatoid arthritis (33 %) and systemic lupus erythematosus (9 %). Fatigue (83 %), weakness (79 %), fever (79 %), myalgia and arthralgia (67 %) were the most common presenting symptoms. Patients were on treatment with glucocorticoids (38 %), conventional synthetic disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARD) (62 %), targeted synthetic or biological (ts/bDMARD) (33 %). We found that elderly patients with a median age of 63 years were more likely to develop severe COVID-19 pneumonia and that was statistically significant (P = 0.008). Patients who use glucocorticoids had more frequently mild disease than severe course of COVID-19 (P = 0.04). Conclusion: The current study suggests that elderly patients with a median age of 63 years with rheumatic diseases are more likely to have a poor outcome in terms of developing severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Chronic use of glucocorticoids is associated with less complication. The other variables were not statistically signifcant.