Compared with previous meta-analyses(3, 6, 7) that applied different statistical methods(99–104) from those in our studies(105–109), the present study identified much stronger evidence of association for ADH1B. The differences included: the study by Zintzaras et al.(3), in which the latest dataset was published in 2004, included 33 studies (no more than one third of our sample size); only included English publications; provided OR without specific P values; and found no association between liver disease and ADH1B His. The meta-analysis by Luczak et al.(6), in which the latest dataset was also published in 2004, only included Asian samples; of there, there were 685 cases and 890 controls from 12 studies (less than 9% of our sample size); performed genotypic analysis without allelic analysis and specific P values; and no association was found for the analysis of His/His vs. Arg/His by this meta-analysis. The older study by Whitfield et al.(7) published in 2002, included 22 studies (17 publications) between ADH1B His and alcoholism. In contrast, our meta-analysis included the largest sample size up to the present (9,638 cases and 9,517 controls) from
