The effectiveness of home visiting as a delivery strategy for public health nursing interventions: a systematic overview

CRD COMMENTARY: It is unclear whether foreign language articles were included or not, or whether there was any attempt to locate unpublished studies. It is unclear why the authors have linked cost analysis and percentage of participant follow-up as one of the 6 quality criteria, or whether this is a mistake and there were 7 quality criteria. The narrative of the review is not well structured, but this probably reflects the broad topics included in the primary studies. It is difficult to separate out the effects of home visiting in the primary studies because of the multi-pronged approach of most of the studies. In summarising the results, the authors reference studies to validate specific summary points. However, on three occasions these references refer the reader to papers that have not been analysed in the review.