variation in prevalence rates found among Han Chinese and Taiwanese samples might be explained by the different geographic locations from which the samples were obtained. The sample with the highest prevalence was from Taiwan, where 55 percent of participants possessed at least one ALDH2 allele (Novoradovsky et al. 1995). Conversely, the samples with the lowest prevalence were from central and northern China, where 22 percent of participants possessed at least one ALDH2*2 allele (Luo et al. 2001; Shen et al. 1997). For the studies with intermediate prevalence rates (i.e., 30 to 32 percent), the samples were from southwest China (Luo et al. 2005) or their location was not reported (Goedde et al. 1992).
