results with this gene. Previous association studies between ADH genes and AD have been widely replicated (Birley et al. 2009; Edenberg and Foroud 2006; Macgregor et al. 2009; Whitfield 2002). Allelic variants in ADH1C have generally demonstrated association in East Asians, who experience a ‘flushing’ reaction, leading to a protective effect (Chen et al. 1999; Osier et al. 1999). Nonetheless, a recent study examining the direct relationship between drinking measures and ADH variants showed that a polymorphism in ADH1C was associated with alcohol consumption in a large Caucasian population sample (Macgregor et al. 2009). In the current study, the combined analysis produced an empirical p=0.015 and when analyzed separately, the EA sample produced p=0.003, which represented the most significant result in the EA sample for the set-based analyses. Although, the AA sample did not produce any results with this gene it showed significant results with another ADH gene, ADH5 (p=0.05). Previous findings with this gene include association (p=0.004) in a small sample of 150 individuals of AA ancestry (Luo et al. 2007).
