Elena Urdaneta1, Blanca Morales,1 David Facal1, Álvaro Garcia,1 Unai Díaz1, Pavlos Doikos2, Nikos Passas3

1Fundación Instituto Gerontológico Matia-INGEMA (Spain), 2Municipality of Athens Development Agency (AEDA) (Greece),3Universita of Athens (UoA) (Greece).

Contact: elena.urdaneta@ingema.es

PeerAssist: A P2P platform supporting virtual communities to assist independent living of

senior citizens

METHODSINTRODUCTIONIndicators of social isolation like living alone,

infrequent participation in social activities and feeling

of loneliness, pose health risks and reduce quality of

life in elderly (Cornwell & Waite, 2009). Information

and communication technologies have a potential

role in social networks also for elderly people

(Zinnikus et al, 2009). In an attempt to fulfill these

needs, the PeerAssist project (2011-2013), funded

by the AAL Joint Programme, promotes a P2P

platform supporting virtual communities to assist

independent living.

Initially, focus groups have been carried out in

Ingema (Spain) with 20 participants (12 women,

average age=66.35; S.D.=6.53) and in AEDA

(Greece) with 18 people (11 women, average

age=71.70; S.D.=2.67). The users, showing

normal cognitive aging, were involved in different

social activities in their own communities. This

was valued as a key factor as user were recruited

to obtain their feedback about the concept and

goals of the project. At the end of the project, the

user validation of the prototype will be based on

performance in their own houses, assessing

possible socio-emotional barriers as well as

social and/or intellectual benefits related to using

the system.

PeerAssist will contribute to a better understanding of the elderly people’s needs regarding Information

and Communication Technologies (ICT) and also to obtain an holistic point of view of the user’s

requirements with the aim of developing social e-inclusion procedures in the European Community.

RESULTS

Ingema · Grupo Matia · www.ingema.es

The expected outcome of the project is an open

end-to-end platform prototype to support the

interaction between elderly people sharing

common interests and with their support

environment.

In addition, preliminary results with Spanish and

Greek participants show that participants have an

average level of exposure to new technologies and

could increase even more the frequency of contact

with family, therefore, PeerAssist Platform is a

good support for this profile of people.

OBJECTIVEThe main objective is to develop a set of

applications to provide an improvement in the

communications and social support needs of senior

citizens. The P2P platform enables peers to build

efficiently virtual communities based on matched

interests.

Cornwell, E.Y. and Waite, L.J. (2009). Social disconnectedness, perceived isolation, and health among older adults. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 50(1), 31-48.

Zinnikus, I., Fischer, K., Alexandersson, J., & Díaz, U. (2009). Bringing the elderly into the mainstream project of e-society: the VITAL project. IADIS International Journal on WWW/Internet, 7, 118-135.

REFERENCES

CONCLUSION