Spectrum News1: Kentucky researchers study location's impact on health
January 19, 2026The Universal Basic Neighborhood Project focuses on diagnosing and treating places instead of just people.
For almost 18 months, Lauren Anderson and her team have spent time conducting crucial research. She’s the research manager at the Center for Healthy Air Water and Soil and the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute.
“We know that health is emergent from the circumstances where we live, where we work, play, pray, all of those things," Anderson said. "We cannot buy health directly, so we need to support the places where people live so that we can help everybody achieve good levels of health, no matter where they live in the city."
She said one of the mottos is there’s no such thing as a bad neighborhood.
“Ine of the things that we know, in development plans and neighborhood plans, is that health is not considered,” Anderson said.
They studied two areas in Louisville: Crescent Hill and the Russell neighborhoods.