Occupational health research in low- and middle-income countries

In 2023, the Lancet published a welcome series of articles on Work and Health. In a piece limited to issues in ‘high-income countries’ (HICs) [1], it was noted that ‘a possibly vast burden of preventable ill health is attributable to suboptimal hazardous working conditions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)’ and that ‘further research on this issue should be a global priority’ (p. 1357). Here, we provide a perspective on the challenges of occupational health (OH) research in LMICs, demonstrating that high-quality research is feasible, and propose recommendations for improvement in this setting. LMICs are home to ∼80% of the world’s population. Many countries are in an ‘early expanding’ demographic stage with high birth rates, relatively young populations and large numbers of men, women and—frequently—children in employment or other work, commonly informal in nature. Consequently, where workplace risks are high, large numbers of individuals will be affected by injury and disease contracted through work. The International Labour Organization (ILO) identified the provision of a ‘safe and healthy working environment’ as a fundamental human right, yet in 2024, among the 17 sustainable development goals (SDG), ‘decent work’ (SDG8) had the fewest targets that were ‘met or on track’.