Five studies of Korean, Korean-American, and Korean-Chinese samples found that approximately one-third (29 to 37 percent) of Koreans had at least one ALDH2*2 allele, including 2 to 3 percent who were homozygous for ALDH2*2 (Goedde et al. 1992; Hendershot et al. 2005; Lee et al. 1997; Luczak et al. 2004; Shen et al. 1997). Finally, ALDH2*2 was much less common among other Asian ethnicities, including Filipinos, Indians, Malays, Siberian Yakuts, and Thais, than in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean samples, with 0 to 10 percent of study participants possessing at least one ALDH2*2 allele (Goedde et al. 1992; Novoradovsky et al. 1995). Taken together, all the studies reviewed here demonstrate great diversity among Asian ethnic groups in the prevalence of heterozy-gosity or homozygosity for ALDH2*2.
