Aims To determine the demographic and morphological characteristics of patients with central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) and describe risk factors for CSC.

Methods We retrospectively reviewed medical records of 811 patients with CSC and 816 healthy controls referred from 2002 to 2018.

Results The female/male ratio of patients with CSC was 1/2.7. Mean age of onset was 45.2 years. The peak prevalence for men occurred at 45–49 years. Women had two prevalence peaks, the higher at 55–59 years and the other at 45–49 years. Of these patients, 56.8% had unilateral disease, 42.1% had bilateral disease and 1.1% had only one eye. 671 (82.7%) patients had spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) images and 598 (73.7%) had enhanced depth choroidal images. Pigment epithelial detachment (PED) was detected in 763 (80.7%) of 945 eyes with SD-OCT images. Chronic cases were more likely to be bilateral and multifocal and to have PED (all p<0.001). Subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) did not differ between chronic and classic cases (p=0.74), but SFCT was greater in multifocal cases than unifocal cases (p<0.001). In multivariate regression analyses, older age of onset, longer duration of disease and hyperopia were positively associated with having chronic disease rather than classic disease, and myopia and thyroid hormone replacement were negatively associated. Steroid use, antidepressant or anxiolytic drug use, smoking, pregnancy and hyperopia were risk factors, and myopia was a protective factor for CSC.

Conclusion This is the largest case-control study of CSC to evaluate demographic morphological characteristics and risk factors. Multiple factors are associated with CSC.