Table A2.

Patterns of COVID-19 impact by age, comparing participants over and under 55 years.

Subthemes	Summary of Theme	Supporting Quotation
Differences in impacts of COVID-19 on Smoking	Younger participants experienced more stress during this time which made it harder for them to quit.	“So quitting smoking is stressful. And then I had extra stress added on to try to keep my family safe and me safe, and I think that was definitely the issue. I think if the virus wasn’t here, and I had the text messaging, I definitely would have stopped because I stopped for longer period of time than I ever. So I think it was just the timing that it involved” [A, under 55, not quit]. “I don’t know if it’s just stress with everything that’s going. If these, I think, other outside factors weren’t involved, it might have gone a little better for me” [M, under 55, not quit].
	Older participants struggled with boredom and isolation which led them to smoke more.	“I think having to stay at home affects it. Social distancing really doesn’t…Because it’s boring. Nothing to do and you have a smoke” [H, over 55, not quit]. “Oh, well, because I’m sitting here, and I’m bored, so it’s affected it a lot because, like I said, I can’t keep myself busy enough When I quit drinking, it was the same thing. I had to find things to do to break up your normal thing you would do that would make you want to have a drink. It’s the same thing with cigarettes. You want to change things so that you can quit. When you can’t, well, it’s making it harder” [N, over 55, not quit].
Age and response to COVID-19 influenced reactions to the texts.	Older participants who were struggling with COVID-19 environmental changes did not enjoy the text messages.	“I think one of the things that I did sort of feel about it, was the text messages in the last month or so were more of a kind of you-failed-every-day sort of thing. Like, “Did you use the patch or the gum?” No. No. No. And it was more like fail, fail, fail, which, in context of everything else that’s going on, was kind of a bummer” [O, over 55, not quit]. “I think the texting was an interesting idea. But, obviously, they were not done that were appropriate for the time what we’re all going through with the COVID, and it was not a person doing it, it was a machine doing it” [J, over 55, not quit].
	Younger participants more often had a positive reaction to the text messages.	“From the text messages, I got used to receiving them every day, very much so. They got me very encouraged. It made me feel very empowered as a person to want to quit smoking. And that was one of the things that I was so excited about, to receive text messages. Maybe it wasn’t a call from somebody, but the text messages were very empowering, very strong, and very wonderful to hear and see each morning on different things and different ways that I can use on quitting smoking” [I, under 55, quit].
Age differences in quitting behaviors during COVID-19	Older participants more often mentioned that COVID-19 had no impact of their motivation to quit.	“It made no difference whatsoever” [G, over 55, quit]. “No, they are pretty much the same benefits [of quitting]” [O, over 55, not quit].
	Younger participant had a more positive outlook and were more motivated to quit	“I just kind of figured I’m in my house. I’m not going out. I’m trying to save money. I almost felt like it would be easier in some sense to actually quit now” [E, under 55, quit].