The main conclusion from this study is that, within 178 previously reported regions, we found no SNP associations which exceeded the significance threshold (P<1.3×10−5) we employed after correction for multiple testing. Our results suggest these regions do not constitute major genetic determinants of lung function measures at the general population level. The lack of replication and sometimes contradicting results in previous studies may reflect the fact that many previously reported associations came from studies with small sample sizes, possibly leading to false positive results.
