The evaluation of the medico-social consequences of asthma in adults encounters difficulties that are inherent to a chronic disease with varying clinical pictures. Overall statistical analyses, particularly concerning mortality, provide little information in a socio-economical perspective, especially in France. However, based on the results of fragmentary but varied analyses, the study of this disease in relation to the working careers of asthmatic subjects underlines the importance of the repercussions at the very start of professional life (choice of profession, recruitement in a company). The study of absenteeism and inaptitude reveals to what degree these consequences are related to the seriousness of the disease and to the asthmatic person's social sphere. The same is true for family and social life which is more difficult to evaluate. Systematic analyses alone will be useful in determining whether asthma is considered a "social disease" with its eventual implications on a public health program.