This investigation has several advantages compared with previous studies. We studied a single large sample of ancestrally similar individuals from a relatively narrow age range, all of whom were residing in the United Kingdom at the time of interview. Using a sample where all individuals are exposed to similar social norms is advantageous as cultural influences are an important influence on alcohol intake patterns.70 Furthermore, all data were subject to the same quality control procedures and these factors would have contributed to our ability to detect eight independent genome-wide significant loci when similar-sized alcohol consumption GWAS did not.15 The main limitation of this study is the reliance on self-reported alcohol consumption and the reliability of this measure. However, the UKB touchscreen interview used to ascertain alcohol intake used pictures to represent different drink sizes that may have increased reliability. Finally, the results presented here may only be applicable to middle- to older-aged white British individuals. Considering that genetic influences on alcohol consumption change across the life course,71 the variants identified in this study may have limited relevance outside of this
