The vast majority of older people wish to remain living in their own homes. Furthermore, institutional care is costly. Consequently there are social and economic imperatives to prevent ill health and disability in older people and enable them to remain in their own homes as long as possible. Home visiting and home-based support are interventions that may be used to these ends. Previous reviews of the effectiveness of home visiting programmes for older people appear to have produced inconsistent and conflicting results. This synthesis has critically appraised all reviews related to home visiting to determine consistent findings.