Measuring alcohol consumption for genomic meta-analyses of alcohol intake: opportunities and challenges.

ABSTRACT: Whereas moderate drinking may have health benefits, excessive alcohol consumption causes many important acute and chronic diseases and is the third leading contributor to preventable death in the United States. Twin studies suggest that alcohol-consumption patterns are heritable (50%); however, multiple genetic variants of modest effect size are likely to contribute to this heritable variation. Genome-wide association studies provide a tool for discovering genetic loci that contribute to variations in alcohol consumption. Opportunities exist to identify susceptibility loci with modest effect by meta-analyzing together multiple studies. However, existing studies assessed many different aspects of alcohol use, such as typical compared with heavy drinking, and these different assessments can

SUBMITTER: Agrawal A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3278237 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature