Mortality during influenza epidemics in the United States, 1967-1978

Excess deaths due to pneumonia and influenza and excess deaths for all causes were estimated using a time-series analysis for each of the eight influenza epidemics in the United States that occurred between 1967-1978. The effects of different analytic methods and different methods of structuring data are compared. Future directions for estimating the impact of influenza on mortality include a combination of regression techniques and multiple time-series analyses of surveillance data.