Our review suggests that data collection in LMICs can carry harmful consequences for the involved research staff, including threats to their physical and emotional well-being, intricate role conflicts, precarious employment conditions, inadequate remuneration, intellectual exploitation and feelings of guilt and shame. Our review also highlights a crucial gap: There is to date less evidence on the challenges faced by research staff on lower hierarchical levels, including local data collectors, translators, and local field managers.
Our systematic review has been published in BMJ Global health and can be accessed here.