diff --git a/lib/checkuninitvar.cpp b/lib/checkuninitvar.cpp
index 9d7f41853..e283262f7 100644
--- a/lib/checkuninitvar.cpp
+++ b/lib/checkuninitvar.cpp
@@ -1965,7 +1965,7 @@ bool CheckUninitVar::isMemberVariableUsage(const Token *tok, bool isPointer, All
     if (isMemberVariableAssignment(tok, membervar))
         return false;
 
-    if (Token::Match(tok, "%name% . %name%") && tok->strAt(2) == membervar)
+    if (Token::Match(tok, "%name% . %name%") && tok->strAt(2) == membervar && !(tok->tokAt(-2)->variable() && tok->tokAt(-2)->variable()->isReference()))
         return true;
     else if (!isPointer && Token::Match(tok->previous(), "[(,] %name% [,)]") && isVariableUsage(tok, isPointer, alloc))
         return true;
diff --git a/test/testuninitvar.cpp b/test/testuninitvar.cpp
index 30ddf2431..56067b6f0 100644
--- a/test/testuninitvar.cpp
+++ b/test/testuninitvar.cpp
@@ -1705,6 +1705,15 @@ private:
                         "    strchr(s.c_str(), ',');\n"
                         "}");
         ASSERT_EQUALS("", errout.str());
+
+        // #6717
+        checkUninitVarB("void f() {\n"
+                        "    struct thing { int value; };\n"
+                        "    thing it;\n"
+                        "    int& referenced_int = it.value;\n"
+                        "    referenced_int = 123;\n"
+                        "}");
+        ASSERT_EQUALS("", errout.str());
     }
 
     void uninitvar_return() {