The role of rs1229984 on alcohol phenotypes in non-Asian population samples has been studied before, especially in relation to dependence (23–25,50–52). In addition, a number of studies consistently reported associations between the A allele and reduced alcohol consumption (23–25,53–57), as well as higher level of response to alcohol (58). Most of the samples studied were relatively small (i.e. <2000) (25,53–58). One exception is a study of 9000 Danes presenting evidence of increased alcohol consumption in men not carrying the A allele (OR of heavy drinking for G allele homozygotes versus heterozygotes: 3.1, 95% CI: 1.7, 5.7) (24). Another is a recent study from Australia examining 50 ADH polymorphisms in association with alcohol intake, confirming rs1229984 as their top hit for most alcohol drinking measures and alcohol-related reactions, with the association between the A allele and reduced overall alcohol consumption approaching ‘genome-wide’ levels of statistical significance (P-value = 8.9 × 10−8) (23). The above results cannot be directly combined, mainly because of incomplete reporting (P-values but no effect estimate) and heterogeneity of populations and alcohol phenotypes presented. However, consistency of the
