Previous studies of metabolizing variants have focused on Asian populations where the ADH1B rs1229984 A allele is common, and only recently was this variant associated with alcoholism at a genome-wide level in an European and African American sample (p=6.6×10−10) (Bierut et al., 2012). A recent GWAS of alcohol dependence further supports a strong effect of this variant in European Americans (p=1.17×10−31) (Gelernter et al., 2014). To our knowledge, this study is the first to examine the effect of the ADH1B rs1229984 variant on adolescent drinking behaviors and incorporate environmental moderation in European and African Americans.
