Optimal Control Strategy for a Discrete Time Smoking Model with Specific Saturated Incidence Rate.

The aim of this paper is to study and investigate the optimal control strategy of a discrete mathematical model of smoking with specific saturated incidence rate. The population that we are going to study is divided into five compartments: potential smokers, light smokers, heavy smokers, temporary quitters of smoking, and permanent quitters of smoking. Our objective is to find the best strategy to reduce the number of light smokers, heavy smokers, and temporary quitters of smoking. We use three control strategies which are awareness programs through media and education, treatment, and psychological support with follow-up. Pontryagins maximum principle in discrete time is used to characterize the optimal controls. The numerical simulation is carried out using MATLAB. Consequently, the obtained results confirm the performance of the optimization strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]