Can Stored Data Answer All Questions: A Study of Questions on Eating Disorders

A common statement is that 80% of the questions can be answered by a small set of perhaps 20% of all answers. To investigate this statement, a set of 630 questions, which were sent to an on-line service, were analyzed. All the questions were about eating disorders and obesity. The conclusion is that the statement, which was investigated, was not true. There was a large variation of different questions, and even though some questions did appear more than once, it was much less than 80% of all questions. The paper offers insight into different types of questions posted on-line in the area of eating disorders. From the study follows that to provide satisfactory answers to a large part of the questions, it is necessary to have humans answering the questions.