Epidemiology of idiopathic central serous chorioretinopathy in Taiwan, 2001-2006: a population-based study

The epidemiology of idiopathic central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) is not well understood in an Asian population. The present study aimed to investigate the incidence and risk factors for corticosteroid-unrelated CSCR using Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database.

From 2001 to 2006, a total of 786 patients (500 [63.6%] males) who were newly diagnosed with CSCR, aged from 20 to 64 years and had no history of corticosteroid prescription were identified as incident cases of idiopathic CSCR. 3606 age-, gender-, and enrollment time-matched subjects were randomly selected as the control group. The mean annual incidence was 0.21‰ (0.27‰ for males, and 0.15‰ for females; P<0.001), with a male/female ratio of 1.74. The peak incidence was in the 35- to 39-year-old age group (0.30‰), followed by the 40- to 44-year-old age group (0.26‰). Males had a significantly higher mean annual incidence than female only in the middle age groups. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) for potential risk factors of idiopathic CSCR. Only exposure to anti-anxiety drugs (OR, 1.63; 95% confidence interval, 1.09-2.44) was found to be independently associated with idiopathic CSCR among males. No risk factors of idiopathic CSCR were found for females.

This study provides the nationwide, population-based data on the incidence of idiopathic CSCR in adult Asians, and suggests that exposure to anti-anxiety drugs is an independent risk factor for idiopathic CSCR among males.