To address this gap, we conducted a GWAS of alcohol consumption in the large and ethnically diverse Genetic Epidemiology Research in Adult Health and Aging (GERA) cohort (n=110 266). It has been previously noted that the use of questionnaire data in large cohorts such as ours may be an efficient and productive approach towards elucidating the genetic basis of alcohol-related traits.30 We examined two statistically independent phenotypes reflecting subjects’ alcohol consumption during the past year, based on self-reported information: any intake (drinker/non-drinker status) and the regular quantity of drinks consumed per week (drinks/week), in four race/ethnicity groups (non-Hispanic whites, Hispanic/Latinos, East Asians, and African Americans) analyzed individually and also combined in a trans-ethnic meta-analysis. Further, we assessed genetic variants that had previously been reported to be associated with alcohol consumption and related traits in our cohort.
