We excluded individuals from the present study owing to inactive status (referral to local treatment centers, death or study withdrawal) at the time of data analysis (n = 413), a confirmed positive result for chronic hepatitis B or C virus infection (n = 651), unavailable baseline ALT data (n = 120), baseline ALT ≥ 40 IU/L (n = 119) and loss to follow-up for at least 1 year (n = 9) (Figure 1). The gene discussed is GPT; the disease is chronic hepatitis B virus infection.