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Over 68,000 deaths were attributable to influenza epidemics in the study period.
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However children less than 5 years old also reported a relevant influenza attributable excess death rate in the 2014//17 seasons (1.05/100,000 and 1.54/100,000 respectively). The average annual mortality excess rate per 100,000 ranged from 11.6 to 41.2 with most of the influenza-associated deaths per year registered among the elderly. We estimated excess deaths of 7,027, 20,259, 15,801 and 24,981 attributable to influenza epidemics in the 2013/14, 2014/15, 2015//17, respectively, using the Goldstein index. As an indicator of weekly influenza activity (IA) we adopted the Goldstein index, which is the product of the percentage of patients seen with influenza-like illness (ILI) and percentage of influenza-positive specimens, in a given week. Population data were provided by the National Institute of Statistics, data on influenza like illness and confirmed influenza cases were provided by the National Institutes of Health. We used the EuroMomo and the FluMomo methods to estimate the annual trend of influenza-attributable excess death rate by age group.
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The objective of our study was to estimate the influenza-attributable contribution to excess mortality during the influenza seasons from 2013/14 to 2016/17 in Italy. Influenza epidemics have been indicated as one of the potential determinants of such an excess. In recent years, Italy has been registering peaks in death rates, particularly among the elderly during the winter season. 7 National Institutes of Health, Viale Regina Elena, 299, 00198 Rome, Italy Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, Piazza Sant'Onofrio, 4, 00165 Rome, Italy.Gemelli IRCCS, Largo Francesco Vito, 1, 00168 Rome, Italy. 6 Department of Woman and Child Health and Public Health - Public Health Area, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A.5 Italian National Institute of Statistics, Via Cesare Balbo, 16, 00184 Rome, Italy.4 Institute of Public Health - Section of Hygiene, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo Francesco Vito, 1, 00168 Rome, Italy.3 Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, Piazza Sant'Onofrio, 4, 00165 Rome, Italy.Electronic address: 2 National Institutes of Health, Viale Regina Elena, 299, 00198 Rome, Italy. 1 National Institutes of Health, Viale Regina Elena, 299, 00198 Rome, Italy Italian National Agency for Regional Healthcare Services, Via Piemonte, 60, 00187 Rome, Italy.