OBJECTIVE: Alcohol intake has been found to be associated with high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. However, the association of alcohol intake with HDL cholesterol subclasses is unclear. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the association between alcohol intake and HDL cholesterol subclasses among Koreans. METHODS: This study included in 1,101 healthy Koreans (men: 765, women: 336) who underwent health check-up at two hospitals in the Korean Cancer Prevention Study 2 (KCPS2). The amounts of alcohol intake were classified into 4 groups: non-, light, moderate, and heavy drinkers (0, <12.5, 12.5-49.9, and > or =50.0 g/day, respectively). The proportions of HDL cholesterol subclasses were measured after subclasses were identified by 4-30% gradient gel electrophoresis. Multiple regression models were used to estimate regression coefficients after multivariate adjustments. RESULTS: The concentration of HDL, HDL2 and HDL3 significantly increased with increasing amount of alcohol intake. After adjusted for age, body mass index (BMI), waist and smoking status, alcohol consumers of <12.5 g/day, 12.5-49.9 g/day and more than 50.0g/day showed significant positive associations with HDL, HDL2 and HDL3 concentration when compared to non-alcohol drinkers in men. In particular, The strongest positive associations were obtained with HDL2b and HDL3c. CONCLUSION: HDL2 and HDL3 were significantly associated with increasing amount of alcohol intake in Koreans. In particular, HDL2b among HDL2 and HDL3c among HDL3 showed the strongest positive association with increasing amount of alcohol intake.