Leprosy is a curable disease but remains a public health problem in many countries. It is a neglected disease, which has a strong relation with the characteristics of the individual, the social context and health services. Physical incapacity and cessation of treatment are important indicators for maintaining the disease transmission chain. The objective of the study is to analyze the epidemiological behavior of leprosy in the Northeast and estimate. the association of programmatic, social and individual vulnerability with physical disability grade 2 in relation to diagnosis and treatment abandonment of leprosy patients residing in the Northeast. Two types of studies were used the mixed ecological of multiple groups and time series, whose unit of analysis are the nine Northeastern states, and the mixed epidemiological, cross-sectional, but with ecological and individual level variables, to analyze the association of the dimensions of individual, social and programmatic vulnerability to the diagnosis of leprosy with grade 2 disability and abandonment of treatment, with the primary sample of 238,164 individuals and at the secondary level 1,794 municipalities. Leprosy data from the Notification Disease Information System were used. A generalized linear regression trend analysis was performed using the Prais-Winsten method of epidemiological indicators of leprosy for the general population and younger than 15 years. In order to select the socioeconomic indicators that were associated with leprosy and later to create an indicator of social vulnerability, an integrative review was carried out. These indicators were selected by the Spearman correlation coefficient, followed by factorial analysis. To analyze the multilevel structure, logistic regressions with mixed effects were used, which include models with individual, social and programmatic variables. Level 1 was the individual, and the 2, the municipality. It was verified that the Northeast shows a decreasing annual trend for general detection but stationary for children under 15 years. Only Maranhão, Piauí, Paraíba and Pernambuco show a downward trend for both indicators. As for the proportion of grade 2 disability in diagnosis, Piauí (p = 0.011), Alagoas (p = 0.049), Bahia (p = 0.004) and Maranhão (p = 0.038) presented an increasing trend. Regarding the proportion of grade 2 among individuals with less than 15 years of age, Maranhão (p = 0.031) and Sergipe (p = 0.44) have an increasing tendency. Grade 2 disability in the diagnosis of leprosy and abandonment of treatment are related to individual and programmatic vulnerability. The individual and programmatic variables were associated to logistic regression outcomes with mixed effects, but in the final model, social vulnerability did not demonstrate a statistical association with the dependent variables studied. Theoretically, it is considered that the individual variables and related to the health services represent the social context, since they are a picture of him. The active transmission of the bacillus, late diagnosis and underreporting in the region were also evidenced. Family health coverage with good indicators of quality of care for leprosy reduces inequities in access to health services and reduces abandonment, although for early diagnosis it shows weaknesses, which increases the number of leprosy diagnoses with degree 2 of disability in referral services. The integration of health services and the expansion of social programs is suggested, since improving the population's living conditions is essential to stop the continued transmission of leprosy and control the endemic disease.(AU)