There are limitations to this study that should be considered – there are relatively few AD individuals available for case-control analysis and, for continuous traits, the study is underpowered to identify variants explaining less than 13% of the variance – but nevertheless we identified genome-wide significant associations for both traits. This study highlights the importance of conducting large-scale genetic studies in non-Western/non-European populations to assess population-specific risk. Variants that contribute to AD in populations of European ancestry may not be present in East Asian populations and vice versa, as is the case with rs671 in the ALDH2 gene, which is rare outside of East Asia (Li et al. 2012b).
