diff --git a/src/structarray.jl b/src/structarray.jl
index 121a5ab7..230bec1c 100644
--- a/src/structarray.jl
+++ b/src/structarray.jl
@@ -21,28 +21,23 @@ struct StructArray{T, N, C<:Tup, I} <: AbstractArray{T, N}
                 axes(c[i]) == ax || error("all field arrays must have same shape")
             end
         end
-        new{T, N, C, index_type(C)}(c)
+        new{T, N, C, index_type(c)}(c)
     end
 end
 
-# compute optimal type to use for indexing as a function of component types
-index_type(::Type{NamedTuple{names, types}}) where {names, types} = index_type(types)
-index_type(::Type{Tuple{}}) = Int
-function index_type(::Type{T}) where {T<:Tuple}
-    S, U = tuple_type_head(T), tuple_type_tail(T)
-    return _index_type(S, U)
+# compute optimal type to use for indexing as a function of components
+index_type(components::NamedTuple) = index_type(values(components))
+index_type(::Tuple{}) = Int
+function index_type(components::Tuple)
+    f, ls = first(components), tail(components)
+    return IndexStyle(f) isa IndexCartesian ? CartesianIndex{ndims(f)} : index_type(ls)
 end
-# Julia v1.7.0-beta3 doesn't seem to specialize `index_type` as defined above
-# for tuple types with "many" elements (three or four, depending on the concrete
-# types). However, we can help the compiler for homogeneous types by defining
-# the specialization below.
-index_type(::Type{NTuple{N, S}}) where {N, S} = _index_type(S)
+# Only check first component if the all the component types match
+index_type(components::NTuple) = invoke(index_type, Tuple{Tuple}, (first(components),))
+# Return the index type parameter as a function of the StructArray type or instance
+index_type(s::StructArray) = index_type(typeof(s))
 index_type(::Type{StructArray{T, N, C, I}}) where {T, N, C, I} = I
 
-function _index_type(::Type{S}, ::Type{U}=Tuple{}) where {S, U}
-    return IndexStyle(S) isa IndexCartesian ? CartesianIndex{ndims(S)} : index_type(U)
-end
-
 array_types(::Type{StructArray{T, N, C, I}}) where {T, N, C, I} = array_types(C)
 array_types(::Type{NamedTuple{names, types}}) where {names, types} = types
 array_types(::Type{TT}) where {TT<:Tuple} = TT
@@ -168,7 +163,6 @@ function buildfromslices(::Type{T}, unwrap::F, slices) where {T,F}
     end
 end
 
-
 function Base.IndexStyle(::Type{S}) where {S<:StructArray}
     index_type(S) === Int ? IndexLinear() : IndexCartesian()
 end
diff --git a/test/runtests.jl b/test/runtests.jl
index f8137ad5..70ac927f 100644
--- a/test/runtests.jl
+++ b/test/runtests.jl
@@ -50,11 +50,10 @@ end
 end
 
 @testset "indexstyle" begin
-    @inferred IndexStyle(StructArray(a=rand(10,10), b=view(rand(100,100), 1:10, 1:10)))
     s = StructArray(a=rand(10,10), b=view(rand(100,100), 1:10, 1:10))
     T = typeof(s)
     @test IndexStyle(T) === IndexCartesian()
-    @test StructArrays.index_type(T) == CartesianIndex{2}
+    @test StructArrays.index_type(s) == CartesianIndex{2}
     @test s[100] == s[10, 10] == (a=s.a[10,10], b=s.b[10,10])
     s[100] = (a=1, b=1)
     @test s[100] == s[10, 10] == (a=1, b=1)
@@ -63,8 +62,8 @@ end
     @inferred IndexStyle(StructArray(a=rand(10,10), b=rand(10,10)))
     s = StructArray(a=rand(10,10), b=rand(10,10))
     T = typeof(s)
-    @test IndexStyle(T) === IndexLinear()
-    @test StructArrays.index_type(T) == Int
+    @test StructArrays.index_type(s) == Int
+    @inferred IndexStyle(s)
     @test s[100] == s[10, 10] == (a=s.a[10,10], b=s.b[10,10])
     s[100] = (a=1, b=1)
     @test s[100] == s[10, 10] == (a=1, b=1)
@@ -72,13 +71,16 @@ end
     @test s[100] == s[10, 10] == (a=0, b=0)
 
     # inference for "many" types, both for linear ad Cartesian indexing
-    @inferred StructArrays.index_type(NTuple{2, Vector{Float64}})
-    @inferred StructArrays.index_type(NTuple{3, Matrix{Float64}})
-    @inferred StructArrays.index_type(NTuple{4, Array{Float64, 3}})
+    @inferred StructArrays.index_type(ntuple(_ -> rand(5), 2))
+    @inferred StructArrays.index_type(ntuple(_ -> rand(5, 5), 3))
+    @inferred StructArrays.index_type(ntuple(_ -> rand(5, 5, 5), 4))
+
+    @inferred StructArrays.index_type(ntuple(_ -> view(rand(5), 1:3), 2))
+    @inferred StructArrays.index_type(ntuple(_ -> view(rand(5, 5), 1:3, 1:2), 3))
+    @inferred StructArrays.index_type(ntuple(_ -> view(rand(5, 5, 5), 1:3, 1:2, 1:4), 4))
 
-    @inferred StructArrays.index_type(NTuple{2, SubArray{Float64, 1, Array{Float64, 2}, Tuple{Base.Slice{Base.OneTo{Int64}}, Int64}, true}})
-    @inferred StructArrays.index_type(NTuple{3, SubArray{Float64, 1, Array{Float64, 2}, Tuple{Base.Slice{Base.OneTo{Int64}}, Int64}, true}})
-    @inferred StructArrays.index_type(NTuple{4, SubArray{Float64, 1, Array{Float64, 2}, Tuple{Base.Slice{Base.OneTo{Int64}}, Int64}, true}})
+    @inferred StructArrays.index_type(ntuple(n -> n == 1 ? rand(5, 5) : view(rand(5, 5), 1:2, 1:3), 5))
+    @inferred IndexStyle(StructArray(a=rand(10,10), b=view(rand(100,100), 1:10, 1:10)))
 end
 
 @testset "replace_storage" begin