Educators to study ChaCha questions on health

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – To provide Indiana University researchers a better understanding of health and cultural topics from the ChaCha answer service, Indiana University School of Nursing and ChaCha have partnered.

IU School of Nursing says the unique nature of the ChaCha data – a variety of questions submitted by users from 2009 to 2012 – will provide researches access to anonymous, de-identified questions that will allow them to research the public’s questions about health and wellness.

“We want to use a data set as large as this one to improve population health on a very large scale,” said Janet S. Carpenter, associate dean for research at IU School of Nursing, in a news release.

They say the data-sharing agreement has led to the creation of the Social Network Health Research Lab on the IUPUI campus.