@article{ref1,
title="History and Medicine: ex voto as a tool for health and epidemiological surveillance",
journal="Annali di Igiene: Medicina Preventiva e di Comunita",
year="2016",
author="Nante, N. and Azzolini, E. and Troiano, G. and Serafini, A. and Gentile, A. and Messina, G.",
volume="28",
number="1",
pages="70-75",
abstract="BACKGROUND: 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. <br><br>METHODS: 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®. <br><br>RESULTS: 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. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: 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.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1120-9135",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}