Epidemiológico

Epidemiológico is the adjective in Spanish and Portuguese that corresponds to the English term epidemiological. It describes information, methods, and questions related to epidemiology, the study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events in populations, and of how health problems can be prevented and controlled.

In practice, "epidemiológico" refers to research designs, surveillance data, metrics, and analyses that aim to understand patterns of disease and health outcomes, identify risk factors, and inform public health actions. The term is used to describe studies, reports, and evaluations that apply epidemiologic principles to real-world health issues.

Common concepts associated with epidemiológico include incidence, prevalence, measures of association such as relative risk and odds ratio, and population-attributable risk. It also encompasses the distinction between descriptive epidemiology (characterizing what, where, and when) and analytic epidemiology (exploring why and how).

Study designs frequently described as epidemiológico include descriptive epidemiology, cohort studies, case-control studies, and cross-sectional studies, each contributing to understanding exposure-disease relationships and temporal dynamics. Analyses may involve surveillance data, outbreak investigation, risk assessment, and the evaluation of interventions.

Applications of epidemiológico span public health planning, surveillance systems, outbreak response, vaccination programs, and the assessment of health policies. Limitations common to epidemiologic work include bias, confounding, measurement error, and data quality issues, as well as challenges in inferring causality from observational data.