Background:Intakes of choline and betaine have been inversely related to the risk of various neoplasms, but scant data exist on nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). We examined the association between consumption of choline and betaine and risk of NPC.Methods:We conducted a case–control study with 600 incident NPC patients and 600 controls 1 : 1 matched by age, sex and household type in Guangdong, China. Dietary intake was assessed by a food frequency questionnaire through face-to-face interview.Results:Intakes of total choline, betaine and choline+betaine were inversely related to NPC after adjustment for various lifestyle and dietary factors (all P-trend <0.001). Adjusted odds ratios (95% CI) for quartile 4 (vs quartile 1) were 0.42 (0.29, 0.61) for total choline, 0.50 (0.35, 0.72) for betaine and 0.44 (0.30, 0.64) for betaine+total choline. Regarding various sources of choline, lower NPC risk was associated with greater intakes of choline from phosphatidylcholine, free choline, glycerophosphocholine and phosphocholine, but not sphingomyelin.Conclusion:These findings are consistent with a beneficial effect of choline and betaine intakes on carcinogenesis.

The COVID-19 pandemic poses significant threat to humans’ physical and mental wellbeing. In response, there has been an urgent “call to action” for psychological interventions that enhance positive emotion and psychological resilience. Extending upon past research documenting the wellbeing benefits of generous action, we conducted two online pre-registered experiments (N =1,623) during the pandemic in which participants were randomly assigned to engage in other- or self-beneficial action. Specifically, participants made charitable donations or gained money for themselves (Experiment 1); purchased COVID-19-related or COVID-19-unrelated items for someone else or for themselves (Experiment 2). Results showed that prosocial behavior led to greater positive affect, meaningfulness, empathy and social connectedness. Affect benefits were detectable whether prosocial spending was COVID-19-related or not. These findings provide support for one strategy to bolster wellbeing during the pandemic – generous action – which may also promote cooperation and social cohesiveness needed to contain and overcome the virus.