title: History and Medicine: ex voto as a tool for health and epidemiological surveillance.
abstract: Ex voto is a donation for a divinity, a Saint or to Virgin Mary for a received mercy. From the analysis of an ex voto it's possible to obtain lots of information and therefore it can be used as a tool for health and epidemiological surveillance, to study morbidity in the past. The aim of this study was the creation of a database to rebuild epidemiological events and diseases, using ex voto as a source of health surveillance.
  
  
  
  We chose to study votive pictures using three types of sources: photographed alive, on-line archives, books and photographic collections. Ex voto have been saved in an Hard Disk, numbered and inserted in a database, then analyzed using Stata®.
  
  
  
  total of 6231 ex voto were collected and catalogued in our database. Ex voto referring to diseases are the most represented (41%), but they have decreased with the time. Road accidents (21.4%) have a constant increase, especially with the appearance of cars and motorcycles. Aggressions (5.45%) decrease constantly; warlike accidents (4.44%) had a peak in the period including both world wars; non professional accidents (10.60%) and accidents at work (3.79%) increase without peaks; maritime accidents (8.88%) have not uniform ups and downs during the time.
  
  
  
  The database let us rebuild epidemiological events of the past, which are not deductible from other sources. Our purpose is to expand in the space-time our source data in order to perform an interesting comparison between past and present.
authors.affiliation: Full Professor, Department of Molecular and Developmental Medicine, Post Graduate School of Public Health, University of Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nante
authors.affiliation: MD, Department of Molecular and Developmental Medicine, Post Graduate School of Public Health, University of Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Azzolini
authors.affiliation: MD, Department of Molecular and Developmental Medicine, Post Graduate School of Public Health, University of Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Troiano
authors.affiliation: MD, Department of Molecular and Developmental Medicine, Post Graduate School of Public Health, University of Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Serafini
authors.affiliation: Sociologist, Department of Molecular and Developmental Medicine, Post Graduate School of Public Health, University of Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gentile
authors.affiliation: Research Professor, Department of Molecular and Developmental Medicine, Post Graduate School of Public Health, University of Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Messina
mesh_terms: D001154:Art / Q000266:history*; D006666:History of Medicine; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008511:Medicine; D008512:Medicine in the Arts; D010151:Paintings / Q000266:history*; D011634:Public Health / Q000266:history*; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D012613:Sculpture / Q000266:history*
keywords: Epidemiological study; History of medicine; Public health