Purpose – The purpose of this paper aims at investigating the influence of initial trust in doctor (ITID) and its corresponding ascendants namely,hospital institutional trust,trusting beliefs and trust propensity of patients,on the medication purchase intention of chronic disease patients in Mainland China.Design/methodology/approach –Cross cities survey was conducted.1500self-administrated questionnaires were distributed to patient groups in 24 hospitals located in 20 cities of 14 provinces and 994 effective questionnaires were collected to test hypotheses.Findings – According to the results,this research supported the hypothesized positive effect of ITID and the sequential effects of the corresponding ascendants of initial trust on medication purchase intention of chronic disease patient.Practical suggestions about how to foster ITID was proposed based on the insights from the research findings and the practitioners’ point of view.Originality/value – This research not only credits the validity of initial trust model proposed by Mcknight et al in 1998,in fact this study has extended the knowledge about the influence of initial trust on medication purchase intention to the context of healthcare service in China.It may be one of the first empirical researches describing the impact of ITID on chronic patients’ medication purchase intention in China.Based on the insights of the findings,this paper also provided some practical suggestions for related stakeholders to foster ITID in China.