... production. genetic longitudinal data analysis / score test / goodness -of- fit measure / covariance struc-ture1. INTRODUCTION The analysis of longitudinal data in genetic studies is attracting increasingattention. ... articleUse of the score test as a goodness -of- fit measure of the covariance structure in genetic analysis of longitudinal dataFlorence JAFFRÉZIC a, b∗, Ian M.S. WHITE a ,Robin THOMPSONc a Institute ... actual covariance structure is available. The score test approachdoes not require the knowledge of a reference model, and the score statistic has a meaningfulinterpretation in itself as a goodness -of- fit...