Table 2.

Rank-order correlations between predictor variables (pairwise n=8367–8734)

	Health literacy	General cognitive ability	Age (years)	Sex	Education	Occupational class
Health literacy	–
General cognitive ability	0.31***	–
Age (years)	−0.16***	−0.46***	–
Sex	0.01	−0.10***	0.02*	–
Education	0.23***	0.38***	−0.40***	0.00	–
Occupational class	−0.18***	−0.25***	0.07***	−0.09***	−0.41***	–

*p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001.

Health literacy was coded 0 for inadequate health literacy, 1 for adequate health literacy; sex was coded 0 for women, 1 for men; education is age left full-time education and was coded 1 for 14 years or under, 2 for 15–16 years, 3 for 17–18 years, 4 for 19 years or older; occupational social class was coded 1 for managerial and professional, 2 for intermediate, 3 for routine and manual.