Animasahun AB, Ransome-Kuti O, Soyele E, Animasahun GA, Ubuane P, Ariyibi A, Hughes-Darden C, Njokanma OF. Nutritional status of children with heart disease attending outpatient clinic at a tertiary health center in Lagos. World J Clin Pediatr 2026; 15(2): 118127 [DOI: 10.5409/wjcp.v15.i2.118127]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Adeola Barakat Animasahun, PhD, Consultant, FACC, Professor, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Lagos State University College of Medicine, Ikeja, Lagos 23401, Nigeria. deoladebo@yahoo.com
Research Domain of This Article
Pediatrics
Article-Type of This Article
Observational Study
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This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Jun 9, 2026 (publication date) through May 16, 2026
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Journal Information of This Article
Publication Name
World Journal of Clinical Pediatrics
ISSN
2219-2808
Publisher of This Article
Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA
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Animasahun AB, Ransome-Kuti O, Soyele E, Animasahun GA, Ubuane P, Ariyibi A, Hughes-Darden C, Njokanma OF. Nutritional status of children with heart disease attending outpatient clinic at a tertiary health center in Lagos. World J Clin Pediatr 2026; 15(2): 118127 [DOI: 10.5409/wjcp.v15.i2.118127]
Adeola Barakat Animasahun, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Lagos State University College of Medicine, Lagos 23401, Nigeria
Adeola Barakat Animasahun, Olubukola Ransome-Kuti, Efe Soyele, Goodness Adejare Animasahun, Peter Ubuane, Olisamedua Fidelis Njokanma, Department of Pediatrics, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Lagos 23401, Nigeria
Adedayo Ariyibi, Cleo Hughes-Darden, Department of Biology, SCMNS, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD 21251, United States
Author contributions: Animasahun AB, Ransome-Kuti O, and Animasahun GA designed the research study; Animasahun AB, Ransome-Kuti O, Soyele E, Ubuane P, and Njokanma OF performed the research; Animasahun AB, Ransome-Kuti O, Animasahun GA, and Ariyibi A performed the analysis and interpretation of the data; Animasahun AB, Ransome-Kuti O, Hughes-Darden C, and Njokanma OF drafted the manuscript with critical review of the manuscript. All the authors approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: Ethical approval was obtained from the Health Research and Ethics Committee of LREC with approval number LREC/06/10/2122.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: Data is available on request.
Corresponding author: Adeola Barakat Animasahun, PhD, Consultant, FACC, Professor, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Lagos State University College of Medicine, Ikeja, Lagos 23401, Nigeria. deoladebo@yahoo.com
Received: December 24, 2025 Revised: January 19, 2026 Accepted: February 26, 2026 Published online: June 9, 2026 Processing time: 140 Days and 16.5 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Malnutrition is a well-recognized complication of pediatric heart disease, resulting from increased metabolic demands, feeding difficulties, and recurrent illness. It contributes significantly to poor growth, impaired immunity, increased susceptibility to infections, and adverse clinical outcomes, including higher perioperative risk. Assessing nutritional status in this population is therefore essential for optimizing management and long-term prognosis.
AIM
To assess the nutritional status of children with heart disease attending an outpatient clinic in Lagos and compare it with that of healthy controls.
METHODS
This hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from February 2024 to August 2024 at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. Seventy children aged 7-16 years with diagnosed heart disease were recruited and matched by age, sex, and socioeconomic status with 70 apparently healthy controls. Nutritional assessment included weight, height, and body mass index with indices expressed as World Health Organization Z-scores. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 24, with P < 0.05 considered statistically significant.
RESULTS
The mean age of participants was 10.5 ± 2.7 years, with a slight female predominance. Children with heart disease had significantly lower weight-for-age, height-for-age, and body mass index-for-age Z-scores compared to controls (P < 0.05). Overall, 48.6% of children with heart disease were malnourished vs 4.3% of controls. Within the heart disease group, poorer nutritional status appeared more common among children with complex or uncorrected lesions and those with frequent hospitalizations.
CONCLUSION
Children with heart disease had significantly poorer nutritional indices than their healthy peers, underscoring the need for routine nutritional assessment and targeted interventions. Early corrective surgery and proactive nutritional support may improve outcomes in this vulnerable group.
Core Tip: Malnutrition harms growth, immunity, and outcomes; assessing nutrition is vital in pediatric heart disease. Malnutrition significantly contributes to poor growth, impaired immunity, increased susceptibility to infections, and adverse clinical outcomes, including a higher perioperative risk. Assessing nutritional status is essential for optimizing management and long-term prognosis in children with congenital and acquired heart diseases.
