Asthma is a very common problem in general practice, however patients with well controlled, mild asthma probably require little regular medical or nursing input; whereas those with more severe asthma and a significant risk of a fatal attack require intensive output. There is a need for an objective, validated scoring system, which could be used to classify patients with asthma into categories that correlate prospectively with outcome, this would permit targeting of practice resources and also allow more accurate comparisons of the effects of interventions. Such a scoring system must be easily applicable in General Practice and must relate to patient-centred outcomes, as well as those that matter most to health care professionals. This project will use the data accumulated in the Devon Networked Asthma Audits over the last three years on just over 5000 asthmatics to determine the combination of parameters that best correlates with known outcomes using logistic regression analysis. In the second stage of the project the scoring system will be prospectively validated, over 12 months, in a large group of asthmatics. The precise sample study will be determined once the components of the severity score have been determined.