  Objective: Cause-of-death distributions are important for prioritising
interventions. We estimated proportions, risks, and numbers of deaths (with
uncertainty) for programme-relevant causes of neonatal death for 194 countries
for 2000-2013, differentiating between the early (days 0-6) and late (days
7-27) neonatal periods.
  Methods: For 65 high-quality VR countries, we used the observed early and
late neonatal proportional cause distributions. For the remaining 129
countries, we used multinomial logistic models to estimate the early and late
proportional cause distributions. We used separate models, with different
inputs, for low and high neonatal mortality countries. We applied these
cause-specific proportions to neonatal death estimates from the United Nations
by country/year to estimate cause-specific risks and numbers of deaths.
  Findings: Of the 2.76 million neonatal deaths in 2013, 0.99 (uncertainty:
0.70-1.31) million (35.7%) were estimated to be from preterm complications,
0.64 (uncertainty: 0.46-0.84) million (23.4%) from intrapartum-related
complications, and 0.43 (0.22-0.66) million (15.6%) from sepsis. Preterm
(40.8%) and intrapartum-related (27.0%) complications accounted for the
majority of early neonatal deaths while infections caused nearly half of late
neonatal deaths. In every region, preterm was the leading cause of neonatal
death, with the highest risks in Southern Asia (11.9 per 1000 livebirths) and
Sub-Saharan Africa (9.5).
  Conclusion: The neonatal cause-of-death distribution differs between the
early and late periods, and varies with NMR level and over time. To reduce
neonatal deaths, this knowledge must be incorporated into policy decisions. The
Every Newborn Action Plan provides stimulus for countries to update national
strategies and include high-impact interventions to address these causes.
