Background Treatment beliefs and illness consequence have been shown to impact medication adherence in patients with years of asthma experience. These relationships are unknown in patients with early experience. Objective The purpose was to test the relationship between illness consequence, treatment beliefs, treatment satisfaction and medication adherence intentions in healthy subjects exposed to an asthma scenario. Methods A 2×2×2 factorial design experiment was conducted in 91 healthy University student subjects. Each student was randomized to receive one scenario with varying levels of illness consequence (high/low), treatment concerns (high/low) and treatment necessity (high/low). After reading the scenarios the students responded to questions about treatment satisfaction and likelihood of using the medication as directed by the physician. A multiple regression model was used to test the impact of factors on treatment satisfaction and medication adherence at the 0.05 level of significance. Results Treatment satisfaction was significantly predicted by treatment necessity with a moderating effect by illness consequence. Medication adherence intentions were significantly predicted by treatment satisfaction. Conclusion Patients with early diagnosis of asthma are likely to form treatment satisfaction as a result of illness consequence and treatment necessity. Patients' perceptions of illness consequence are likely to influence (moderate) the impact of treatment necessity on treatment satisfaction; and their intentions to take medication as directed are likely to be influenced by treatment satisfaction rather than treatment beliefs or illness consequence early in the patient illness experience. These results are from an experiment that should be tested in a patient population.