Final answer:
To find the number of incident cases of postpartum depression, we set up a proportion using the given incidence rate and total woman-years of follow-up. The result is 30 incident cases in the population.
Step-by-step explanation:
To find the number of incident cases of postpartum depression, we need to calculate the total number of woman-years of follow-up for the given population. Since the incidence rate is given as 12 cases per 100,000 woman-years, we can set up a proportion to find the number of incident cases:
12 cases / 100,000 woman-years = x cases / 250,000 woman-years
Cross multiplying, we get: 12 * 250,000 = 100,000 * x
Simplifying, we get: 3,000,000 = 100,000 * x
Dividing both sides by 100,000, we find that x = 30
Therefore, there were 30 incident cases of postpartum depression in this population.