AccScience Publishing / IJOCTA / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/IJOCTA026240117
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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Impact of socio-economic and healthcare structure on epidemic dynamics: Mathematical modeling and optimal control

Khaddouj Taifi1 Yassine Sabbar2* Necati Özdemir3
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1 IPDAC Team, Department of Informatics, FST Errachidia, Moulay Ismail University of Meknes, Boutalamine, Morocco
2 IMIA Laboratory, T-IDMS, Department of Mathematics, FST Errachidia, Moulay Ismail University of Meknes, Boutalamine, Errachidia, Morocco
3 Department of Mathematics, Balıkesir University, Cagıs Campus, Balikesir, Turkiye
Received: 12 June 2026 | Revised: 3 July 2026 | Accepted: 13 July 2026 | Published online: 27 July 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract

We propose and analyze a deterministic SEIR-type epidemic model coupled with two dynamic capacity variables representing socio-economic support and healthcare resources. The resource variables reduce transmission and enhance recovery, whereas infection depletes both capacities, and healthcare operations impose an additional socio-economic cost. We establish positivity, boundedness, and global existence of solutions. The disease-free equilibrium is derived from the coupled resource subsystem, and the associated basic reproduction number R0 is obtained via the next-generation matrix method. The diseasefree equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable when R0 < 1 and unstable when R0 > 1. For R0 > 1, the endemic-equilibrium problem is reduced to a scalar equation, yielding the existence of at least one positive endemic equilibrium; a verifiable monotonicity condition that ensures uniqueness is also provided. We formulate an optimal control problem incorporating prevention, treatment, and healthcare-reinforcement controls, prove the existence of an optimal control, and derive the Pontryagin necessary conditions. For the illustrative baseline parameter set, the full endemic Jacobian has eigenvalues with negative real parts, and the numerical experiments illustrate lower exposed and infectious trajectories under the computed three-control solution of the optimality system.

Keywords
Epidemic model
Socio-economic capacity
Healthcare capacity
Basic reproduction number
Sensitivity analysis
Optimal control
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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An International Journal of Optimization and Control: Theories & Applications, Electronic ISSN: 2146-5703 Print ISSN: 2146-0957, Published by AccScience Publishing