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Health Bits Active Kids Are Less Depressed Middle-school students who become more physically active show fewer signs of depression, researchers say. In a study of 4,594 Minnesota students, more physical activity at the start of seventh grade was tied to less depression. And among students who increased activity over the two-year study, symptoms of depression fell, says coauthor Rod K. Dishman, Ph.D., of the University of Georgia. The research appeared in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine. Depression tends to rise in early adolescence, Dr. Dishman warns. That means parents and educators should keep children as active as they can. Sibling Rivalry Can Pay Off Children who grow up with siblings get along better with kindergarten classmates than only children, an Ohio State University study shows. Researchers asked teachers to rate more than 20,000 children. "Children without siblings were consistently rated as having poorer social skills," says study coauthor Douglas Downey, Ph.D. "Siblings fight with each other; they have conflicts, but they also figure out how to resolve those conflicts. That probably helps them deal with other children when they go to school." The study appeared in the Journal of Marriage and Family. You Can Get Help With Dental Care Kids miss more than 51 million hours of school a year due to dental illness, says the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD). Yet nearly half of tooth decay isn't treated in low-income children. "Dental diseases grow progressively worse without treatment," says AGD spokesman Mark Ritz, D.D.S. Your child's health could suffer -- and the cost of fixing the problem will only get worse. "However, most oral health problems can be prevented," says Dr. Ritz. Routine dental exams and oral health education can help. You can get help if you can't afford dental care for your child, the AGD says. Among the options: Medicaid (http://cms.hhs.gov), state children's health insurance programs (www.insurekidsnow.gov) and dental school clinics. Kids' Alcohol Use Holds Steady After peaking in the late 1970s, the underage drinking rate has held steady since the early 1990s, a study shows. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that about 20 percent of eighth-graders and about 49 percent of 12th-graders say they've used alcohol in the past 30 days. More than 12 percent of eighth graders and nearly 30 percent of 12th-graders reported having five or more drinks at one sitting in the past two weeks. Those numbers have changed little in a decade. "Stable is better than up," says researcher Vivian B. Faden, Ph.D., of the NIH's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. But she wants "to get those numbers moving down again."