Table 1.

Health literacy instruments, scores, and cutoff levels.

Instrument	N. of Items	Score	Transformation	Cutoff Values
HLS-EU-Q47 [10]	47	Mean	Scores transformed to a unified metric with a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 50, where 0 represents the ‘least possible’ and 50 represents the ‘best possible’ health literacy score.	0–25 = “inadequate”; >25–33 = “problematic”; >33–42 = “sufficient”; >42–50 = “excellent”
HLS-EU-Q16 [11]	16	Sum	The answers were dichotomized: “very difficult/rather difficult” versus “easy/very easy”	More than 12 out of 16 answers = “Sufficient”; From 9 to 12 out of 16 answers = “Problematic”; Less than 9 out of 16 answers = “Inadequate”
HLS-COVID-Q22 [12]	22	Mean	No	≤2.5 = “inadequate”; >2.5 and <3 = “problematic”; ≥3 = “sufficient”
HLS19-Q12 [8]	12	Sum	The answers were dichotomized: “very difficult/difficult” versus “easy/very easy”	If the number of answers “very easy” is above 1/2 and the answers for “(very) difficult” is not more than 1/12 = “excellent”; if at least 10 out of 12 items answers are “(very) easy” and not more than 2 out of 12 are “(very) difficult” = “sufficient”; if the number of answers “(very) difficult” is above 1/2 and for “very easy” is not more than 1/12 = “Inadequate”; the intersecting set of not “excellent” and not “sufficient” and not “inadequate” = “problematic”