contribute to identifying axSpA in CBP patients indicating these family elements may not be very useful for diagnosis. A PFH of AS or AAU however may be useful in finding cases in low prevalence settings as these were correlated with HLA-B27 carriership. Background: In the pre-biologics era, employment of patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) was decreased when compared to the general population. However, information on standardized employment since the introduction of biologicals is

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... . Also, while mastery (control over disease) has been identified as strong predictor of work outcome within patients with AS, it is not known whether such personality trait plays a similar role in patients compared to population subjects. Objectives: To update the knowledge on employment and contributing factors, in particular personal factors, among Dutch patients with AS compared to general population subjects. Methods: Data from patients and population controls participating in the Dutch cross-sectional multicenter survey-based Social Participation in AS Study (SPASS) and ≤65 years were used. Standardized employment ratios (SERs) were calculated using indirect standardization after adjusting for age, gender and education and were stratified by disease duration tertiles. Adjusted absolute employment rate (%) was calculated as "SER[AS]*employment rate [controls]". Modified Poisson regressions were performed to understand the role of mastery as a personal factor (Pearlin's Mastery scale) in patients opposed to controls, independent of socio-demographics (age, gender, education) and health-related factors (comorbidities, Physical Component Summary (PCS) of the SF-36). Results : 214 patients and 470 controls (127 [59.3%] and 323 [68.7%] males; mean age of 48.3 [SD 10.4] and 39.3 [SD 12.7] years, respectively) completed the online questionnaire in 2011. SERs (95% CI) of patients with AS with controls set as reference (1.00) were 0.83 (0.69-0.98) for the total group, 0.84 [0.67-1.04] for males and 0.83 [0.59-1.07] for females. There was no significant difference in SER between those with short or long disease duration (Figure 1 ). Adjusted absolute employment rate (%) of patients with AS was 14% lower compared to controls (69% vs. 84%). In both patients and controls, higher PCS (SF-36) was associated with being employed. While AS patients with higher (better) mastery were more likely to be employed, such association was not seen in controls (p<0.01 for interaction group*mastery) (Table) .