Marketing awareness, professional experience, and support for e-cigarette advertising regulation among Polish legal professionals: a latent-class analysis

OBJECTIVES: To examine whether marketing awareness - operationalized as recognition of e-cigarette advertising persuasiveness - relates to support for advertising regulation among Polish legal professionals, and to identify sociodemographic and occupational correlates of regulatory attitudes. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Cross-sectional survey of 471 legal professionals in Poland. Latent class analysis identified 3 marketing awareness segments based on 5 perception indicators. The 3-class solution (Bayesian information criterion = 3121.23, entropy = 0.941) distinguished low (38.5%), moderate (47.0%), and high (14.5%) awareness groups. Binary logistic regression modeled support for advertising regulation ("yes" vs. "not-yes"), with awareness class membership and covariates (age, experience, sector, profession) as predictors. RESULTS: The relationship between marketing awareness and regulatory support could not be established (moderate awareness: odds ratio [OR] = 1.67, 95% CI: 0.99-2.81, p = 0.054; high awareness: OR = 1.82, 95% CI: 0.85-3.90, p = 0.125). Professional experience >10 years (OR = 3.22, 95% CI: 1.02-10.20, p = 0.047) and corporate sector employment (OR = 0.53, 95% CI: 0.30-0.94, p = 0.030) were the only significant predictors. CONCLUSIONS: This exploratory study could not determine whether marketing awareness relates to regulatory support among legal professionals. Professional experience emerged as the primary correlate, suggesting regulatory attitudes may be shaped by professional socialization. Policy efforts should prioritize enforcement of existing restrictions and professional education for early-career practitioners. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2026;39(1):79-92.