1. Elena Urdaneta 1, Blanca Morales, 1 David Facal 1, Álvaro Garcia, 1 Unai Díaz 1, Pavlos Doikos 2, Nikos Passas 3 1 Fundación Instituto Gerontológico Matia-INGEMA (Spain), 2 Municipality of Athens Development Agency (AEDA) (Greece), 3 Universita of Athens (UoA) (Greece). Contact: elena.urdaneta@ingema.es PeerAssist: A P2P platform supporting virtual communities to assist independent living of senior citizens METHODS INTRODUCTION Indicators 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. OBJECTIVE The 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