Title: COVID-19 PANDEMIC MORTALITY AT THE COUNTRY LEVEL: A

FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF VACCINATION TRAJECTORIES, SOCIOECONOMIC,

AND DEMOGRAPHIC DETERMINANTS 

Abstract: This capstone project investigates the association between COVID-19 vaccination rates and country-level mortality, considering socioeconomic and demographic factors, using Functional Data Analysis (FDA). A scalar-on-function regression (SOFR) framework was applied to analyze 77 countries across six pandemic periods, encompassing the Delta and Omicron

variant waves. The response variable was the log-transformed COVID-19 death rate, modeled

as a scalar outcome. The primary predictor was the time-varying vaccination rate. At the same time,

covariates included log-transformed population density, proportion of adults aged 65 years and

older, life expectancy at age 60, and health expenditure per capita.

Chair: Dr. Ruiyan Luo