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According to the World Health Organization, the improvement of people's health literacy is one of the fundamental public health challenges in the 21st century. The key issue in teaching health literacy is to develop critical thinking skills. As health literacy and critical thinking should be developed at school age, we reviewed teaching methods or educational interventions used in empirical studies focused on the development of critical thinking regarding health and implemented by teachers in preschools, primary schools, or secondary schools. We searched seven databases (Medline, Embase, Web of Science, ERIC, ProqQuest, PsycArticles, and CINAHL) from inception to 20 September 2023 for any type of empirical studies. Due to the heterogeneity in interventions and inadequate reporting of results, a descriptive synthesis of studies was performed in addition to quantitative analysis. Of the 15919 initial records, 115 studies were included in the review. Most of the educational interventions focused on lifestyle-related health issues such as substance use, sexual and reproductive health, and nutrition. The popularity of health issues changed over time and depended on the geographical context. Six dimensions that differentiated the teaching methods were identified: central teaching component, central educator, pupils' activity level, teaching context, educational materials, and significance of critical thinking. Many educational interventions did not address the development of critical thinking skills in a comprehensive manner, and the significance of critical thinking varied greatly. Interventions in which critical thinking had high and very high significance applied mainly problem-solving methods and involved pupils' activity. The evidence on the effectiveness of the teaching methods that develop critical thinking is limited because most articles failed to provide detailed information on the teaching methods or did not examine their effects. We recommend that a checklist is developed to facilitate a detailed description of health educational interventions and thus promoting their replicability. Study registration: The protocol of the review was registered in the OSF Registries on 13 January 2022 (doi: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/46TEZ).

In times of pandemic, health literacy (HL) is very important, as it helps to find, understand, and use essential health information and services. According to WHO, HL is pivotal in fighting infodemic effectively, and education is a vital tool for developing it. In the presented work, we analyze 247 educational materials dedicated to children, adolescents, and their carers explaining the pandemic, prepared by the Chinese, American, German, Italian and Polish governments and international non-governmental organizations. Focusing on the textual and visual side of the documents, we investigated how the pandemic is explained and what discursive measures were used to inform young citizens about the risks and consequences of pandemic restrictions. Additionally, we verified whether the materials helped developing critical thinking, which is crucial to prevent spreading fake news and conspiracy theories. Although the analyzed materials were prepared in different cultural contexts, we identified that all of them contained simple instructions on the desired behaviours during the pandemic. Key messages relating to the importance of hygienic behaviors were often supplemented with guidelines on how to successfully complete each action. While the cultural particularities in presenting the state of the pandemic are visible, the challenges of dealing with the emotional and social crises were dominant all around the world. In our study, we argue that the possibilities of building HL were not fully exploited by the national and international institutions. Citizens were taught how to behave in unusual circumstances but not why they should behave differently. The educational materials lacked reliable knowledge that would allow them to deal with infodemic and develop critical thinking. We conclude that health education expertise worldwide should be focused on enhancing individuals’ ability to make informed health decisions and provide three recommendations regarding the process of development of health educational resources for children and the youth.